A contrarian, that's kind of nice, swims against the tide, but troublemakers, not such a compliment. And weirdo crazy conspiracy theorists, definitely not a compliment. The problem is that most of them are wrong. Those crazy people who had theories about purple fever being whatever they were, witchcraft, or be sure there were some horrible, incorrect theories,. Poor Mr. Semmelweis, or blessed Mr. SemMelweis, Dr. Sebelius' theory was correct. But his colleagues lumped them together with the crazies because of the edifice trap. They were much happier in the dark and going forward in ignorance.
When physician Walter Freeman died in 1972, he still believed that lobotomies were the best treatment for mental illness. A pioneer in the method, he was a deeply confident and charismatic man who eagerly spread the technique in America, long after the rise of alternative treatments that were less destructive. Listen as journalist Megan McArdle and EconTalk's Russ Roberts discuss what McArdle calls the "Oedipus Trap": mistakes that no one can live with, even if they were innocently made, and how admitting such mistakes to ourselves is nearly impossible. They also discuss the complexity of the credo, "follow the science."