(no subject)

[theweaselking]

The Galileo Fallacy:

The thinking goes like this:

"Great thinkers throughout history have had unpopular ideas that everyone disagreed with.

"I have an unpopular idea that everyone disagrees with.

"Therefore, I must be a great thinker."

Comments

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

There's an artist's corollary:

"Great artists throughout history have created works that everyone disliked and misunderstood until after they were dead.

"Nobody likes or understands my work, even though I drink a lot/do interesting drugs/have many piercings.

"Therefore, I must be a great artist."

(My mother used to work for an art school. The foregoing is by no means an unusual attitude, typically voiced by people of whose work she might well have said, à la Gertrude Stein, "There's no there there.")

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

From that same article I linked:

The Galileo Fallacy is often accompanied by the Gadfly Corollary. It goes something like this

"Great thinkers throughout history have make people upset, angry, irritated, or insulted.

"I make people upset, angry, irritated, or insulted.

"Therefore, I must be a great thinker."