There's a famous saying in Brazil that the one-eyed is king in the land of the blind. But, on the other hand, most of the time, the one-eyed will be most likely exiled from the blind’s land.
History is full of characters who were discredited, ignored, or punished because they chose to call out something evident in plain sight. Yet, the majority of people decided not to see it.
In Greek mythology, there's Cassandra, the Trojan priestess who was given the gift of prophecy but was also cursed so that her true prophecies would not be believed.
"And yet it moves" is a famous phrase attributed to Galileo Galilei after being forced to recant his claims that the Earth moves around the Sun rather than the converse. Galileo was sentenced to imprisonment at the pleasure of the Inquisition, under which he remained for the rest of his life.
In recent history, there's the case of Martha Mitchel. The outspoken and flamboyant wife of Nixon's Attorney General was the first person to open up to journalists about the Watergate break-in. Editors didn't take Mitchell seriously or didn't want to give her much credit. Still, Nixon's political machinery spread rumors to disrepute her, and as a result, she was largely discredited and even abandoned by most of her family. When Nixon finally admitted, "If it hadn't been for Martha Mitchell, there'd have been no Watergate," she was finally vindicated but died soon after. Later, psychologist Brendan Maher coined the "the Martha Mitchell Effect" to refer to someone diagnosed as delusional for making seemingly outlandish claims — but is actually telling the truth. Martha Mitchel was the modern Cassandra.
In today's highly polarized society, where shifting a narrative and cancel culture has become prevalent, it's becoming increasingly harder to asses truth or anything in accordance with fact or reality. In his paper "Democracy Devouring Itself," Professor of Political Science and Psychological Science Shawn W. Rosenberg argues that the concept of truth has been declining, and ultimately, it can cause the demise of modern democracy. He believes that a combination of people now getting their news from social media instead of established news outlets – which helps fake news proliferate – and society's experts and public figures being sidelined, contributed to a blurry landscape where it's harder to fact-check reality.
Rosenberg makes the case that historically, the elites – senators, journalists, intellectuals, historians, scientists, professors, judges, and government leaders, among others – "have the motivation to support democratic culture and institutions and the power to do so effectively." To him, this elite has consistently helped people to parse what's factual or not, squashing conspiracy theories and calling out populists for their inconsistencies. Today, with the rise of social media, anyone can make a false claim that can potentially stick. Ironically, it makes it harder for whistleblowers or one-eyeds to be heard or even noticed.
In fact, our human beings' biases skew our brains at the most fundamental level, which it can be fatal to truth assessment. We discount evidence when it doesn't align with our goals, choosing information that confirms our biases. In Martha Mitchell's case, for example, the fact she was a woman – especially a flamboyant girly-girl socialite from the South – made people think she wasn't credible.
Of course, there are an overwhelming variety of conspiracy theories, hysteria, fiction, and alternative facts around us. From silly like Chicken Little to creepy Qnon, with controversy-seeking Kanye in between. But certainly, living among us, regular humans, there are people with a divergent take on current topics; people who question the status quo based on a particular, but nevertheless factual, perception of reality. Perhaps, they might sound or look different than the majority, but maybe that’s exactly where their power lies. Because, in the land of the blind, to take a glimpse of a different future, sometimes all we need is a cyclops.