Little Hawk, this is not the alternative health thread, but if you mean Walter Reed, he's a brilliant example. This man within a few years convinced his colleagues that a once minority position was actually correct. He did this by experimentation and carefully chosen controls. He also tested the alternative theories and made tests that were crucial for his theory for they easily could have shown it wrong. He convinced by evidence. That's the only way.

But the structure of your implicit argument is unconvincing. You know of a lone man who turned out to be correct. The ruins-on-the-Mars men are also lone men. Therefore...?

Well, I know many minority positions that turned out to be wrong. What follows from that? Nothing.

The fact that someone can think up a fancy idea or theory says nothing yet about it being right or wrong. Show me good and convincing evidence (and the bolder the claim, the stronger I like the evidence to be) and then I love to change my mind.

Wolfgang