Supporters and Critics
The magazine The Contrarian Media describes itself as "The Toast of Delinquent Intellectuals Everywhere".
Paul Krugman has criticised "contrarianism without consequences", in relation to the debate over global warming, and in particular, the controversy over the book Superfreakonomics, saying "The refusal of the Superfreakonomists to take responsibility for their failed attempt to be cleverly contrarian on climate change is a sad spectacle to watch ... having paraded their daring contrarianism, the freakonomists are trying to wiggle out of the consequences when it turns out that they were wrong." The Economist has suggested that the critical response to Superfreakonomics may represent the end of contrarianism as a popular style of journalism, quoting the Crooked Timber blog description of contrarianism as "a cheap way of allowing ideological hacks to think of themselves as fearless, independent thinkers, while never challenging (in fact reinforcing) the status quo.”"
Morrissey, former vocalist of English band The Smiths, is well known for his controversial and contrarian views regarding the UK government and the Monarchy of the United Kingdom.
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Famous quotes containing the words supporters and/or critics:
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you’re cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)