r/AskReddit • u/DrCompenomics • 12h ago

Who’s the best real-life example of “you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” and what happened?

3.8k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

129

u/Wolf_Mans_Got_Nards 9h ago edited 9h ago

This is what always irks me about the whole Johnny Rotten/Jimmy Saville thing. Rotten wasn't "exposing" anything. He was a professional contrarian, he just repeated a bunch of contentious runours, and got lucky that the Saville one was true.

19

u/Oilswell 5h ago

And now he’s gone right wing because that’s the opinion that makes him an outsider in the circles he’s in. He doesn’t believe anything.

17

u/oh_what_a_surprise 7h ago

I mean, there's an argument that professional contrarians are and always have been an important part of society. The tenth man and all that.

17

u/Unleashtheducks 5h ago

There is a difference between presenting a coherent argument exposing the flaws in what everyone takes for granted and just trying to be as big of an asshole as possible for attention.

8

u/unassumingdink 5h ago

When you legitimately oppose something that 90% of the people support (Afghanistan War in 2001 America, for instance), a contrarian feels like a breath of fresh air.