In the opening lines of “Braveheart”, Robert the Bruce says ‘history is written by those who would hang heroes’ or something along those lines. That movie depicted human nature to a tee. Nothing has changed since then except that we get our news instantly instead of by horseman or carrier pigeon.
I have come to the conclusion that it is such a significant part of human nature that it is a miracle the species has survived at all.
When someone sees something others do not, and tells them, they will be met with denial and ridicule, and if they persist, they will be marginalized (using ridicule), and as the idea becomes more evident a few will waver in the shadows. As the rest of the evidence becomes manifest and the concept becomes undeniably obvious, then the selfsame people who ridiculed the original purveyor(s) of that knowledge will seek to take credit for it, to the exclusion of all others.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man isn't king, he is beaten to death for heresy.