This section on contrarians in a transcript of two interviews by a venture capitalist named Josh Wolfe. He draws a different between ‘authentic contrarians’ and ‘consensus contrarians’ – the notes don’t explicitly define the terms, but say that authentic contrarians
[have] a good understanding of what everyone else believes…
… the ability to withstand being [not just] misunderstood, but also being disliked… to be socially ostracised
Both of which are not common traits. They are also not necessarily skills that can be built up through study. The VC also says that
Cancel culture is resulting in virtually nil tolerance if someone makes one footfall.
This is important. Most issues of importance have today divide people into two camps. Someone whose views are contrarian enough to question basis aspects of the issue, say its very validity, will face disagreement from both sides. Sufficiently inflamed – and the margins are getting narrower – one or both sides may in fact ‘cancel’ the contrarian online.