Do you know what, for example, Macaulay Culkin, Britney Spears, Galileo Galilei and maybe Antonio Salieri have in common? There is one unobvious detail that unites them all. At different times, tons of public condemnation fell upon these people, literally reaching hatred - although in reality, none of them, of course, deserved such feelings at all.

Nevertheless, it is obvious that society needs not only role models, but also targets for negativity, and it does not matter where this negativity is poured out - in the marketplaces of the Middle Ages, in the aristocratic salons of the 19th century, or in Reddit threads. And, unfortunately, history knows a lot of such people who completely undeservedly received mass hatred.

#1 Brendan Fraser

Brendan Fraser, after the trailer for The Whale was released the fat acceptance movement had a go at him.

Fat activists went on and on about how fatphobic it supposedly was that he was wearing a fat suit instead of gaining the weight for the role.

They tried to "cancel" the movie and said that as he was a "small fat" he shouldn't have played a role that was made for a "super fat" actor.

The way I see it, Brendan Fraser is one of the few unproblematic celebrities who got the opportunity to make a come back after years of not acting, he made this comeback after being open about being a victim of abuse, and he doesn't deserve to be welcome with more hate and more abuse, especially from people who could make the choice to change themselves instead of moaning a out everyone who happens to be slimmer than them.

Image credits: StuffEmersonSays

#2 Stella Liebeck

The "hot coffee" McDonald's lady. The story that I had heard and believed for years was that some woman burnt her tongue a little and sued McDonald's for not marking clearly that their coffee was hot.

When the reality was that McDonald's raised the temperature of their coffee way higher than normal, it spilled on her when getting it in the drive through, and her burns were horrifically severe and she needed skin grafts. She was suing for so much because it literally how much her medical bills cost. But so many people ridiculed her and the case for years.

Edit: people calling me out for saying "higher than boiling point". I just meant that it was really REALLY hot.

Image credits: Corka

#3 Janet Jackson

Janet Jackson - a dude rips off part of her costume and SHE gets cancelled?

Also - it’s a titty, why the uproar? Titties are great.

Image credits: Equivalent-Wedding21

On the whole, perhaps, in human history, there is not a single more or less well-known personality who was always, absolutely, one hundred percent received positively. Even, for example, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa or Pope John Paul II - all of them, at certain stages of their lives, sometimes faced massive disapproval from certain social groups.

But there are people about whom the public steadily formed an attitude - and this attitude just as steadily turned negative. For example, the famous composer Antonio Salieri was innocently harmed by a completely false and far-fetched accusation that he had poisoned his longtime friend Mozart. Well, or at least weaved vile intrigues against a brilliant colleague.

In reality, of course, it wasn't like that. As a twist of fate, during his lifetime, Salieri was much more successful than Mozart. And the talent of the Italian composer was also more than outstanding. And, by the way, it was Salieri who helped Mozart more than once in arranging his concerts and finding customers for musical works.

#4 Macaulay Culkin

Macaulay Culkin.

For redditors old enough to remember, the young *Home Alone* star got a bunch of hate for being a spoiled brat when he sued to divorce his parents.

Truth of the matter is his father was a physically abusive a*****e, and his parents were going to take the $15-20M he earned from acting and leave Macaulay with nothing.

Image credits: happy_snowy_owl

#5 Alan Turing

Alan Turing. You’re not being forced to salute the Nazi flag because of him and the very people who’s a**es he saved drove him to [taking his own life].

Image credits: JulieKaye67

#6 Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis

He was a Hungarian physician and scientist, described as the "saviour of mothers". He proposed the practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847 while working in Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of midwives' wards.

Some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and mocked him for it. In 1865 he allegedly suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum by his colleagues. In the asylum he was beaten by the guards. He died 14 days later from a gangrenous wound on his right hand that may have been caused by the beating. His findings earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory.

Image credits: SuvenPan

Why is this happening? In fact, discrediting someone's good name is quite simple - both in the old days and today. Fact-checking has never been the forte of most people, and we readily believe in various gossip, no matter how dirty it may seem. In addition, we often do not know all aspects of celebs' life, as well as the reasons that encourage them to commit one act or another, which seems completely unsightly to us from the outside.

#7 Britney Spears

Honestly: Britney Spears. The way we treated her after the breakdown is downright sad. The fact that more people don't crack under the pressure she was going through baffles me; imagine your life is televised almost 24/7 and you couldn't even feel sure that you had privacy in your own home.

Not even gonna get into the conservatorship. We really did her dirty. Regardless of what you think about the music, she deserved and deserves to be treated with more respect than she got.

Image credits: AbsolutistUnit

#8 Sinéad O'Connor

Sinéad O'Connor.

Tried to expose the abuse from the churches and pretty much lost her career. People used her as a punching bag at the time, but nobody ever apologized to her.

Image credits: ebjsje

#9 Keanu Reeves

Y’all probably too young to remember when Keanu Reeves was a late night punchline for years. In the 90’s every reference to the man was about how stupid he seemed.

Image credits: loritree

"In the old days, of course, it was much easier to discredit the image of any person - after all, information, already incredibly scarce, was almost always transmitted verbally, and at the same time inevitably distorted," says Valery Bolgan, historian and editor-in-chief of the Ukraine-based Intent news agency. "People's rumors spread very quickly, and people had neither the opportunity nor the desire to verify the accuracy of the information."

"Today we are, however, at the other extreme - there is a huge amount of information around us, and we are faced with a lot of fakes and partial fakes, created both by someone's order and out of ignorance. In addition, the authority of leaders of both the mass media and public opinion is gradually falling. It is enough to convict some source of lying at least once for its information to be regularly called into question. In such a situation, it is not surprising that many people are prone to self-deception," Valery Bolgan concludes.

#10 Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg.

Image credits: Yhaqtera

#11 Corey Feldman

Corey Feldman over his comments about childhood sexual abuse in Hollywood. Barbara Walters treated him like s**t and basically told the world he was a liar.

Image credits: TinktheChi

#12 Monica Lewinsky

Monica Lewinski

Image credits: Tomegunn1

It is sad that young celebrities often become targets for public censure, although their actions are de facto controlled either by their parents or other members of their environment. From Shirley Temple to Macaulay Culkin, from Mickey Rooney to Rebecca Black, just about everyone who achieved big fame at an early age went through it, and not everyone managed to cope with such pressure. Perhaps Shirley Temple did it best of all - but she had to completely change her occupation, leaving Hollywood for big politics.

#13 Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter. He was an OK president during some hard times. And now we know that Regan's people delayed the release of the Iran hostages until after the election.

Image credits: gadget850

#14 Bella Ramsey

The girl plying Ellie in the Last of us live action. It’s disgusting how people are bullying her for her looks.

Image credits: SilentLanguage2108

#15 Galileo Galilei

galileo galilei. he was just speaking facts

Image credits: aintshockedbyyou

History is actually an incredibly flexible science, and the nature of modern society is such that we constantly receive new portions of information that can completely change our view of what we took for granted only yesterday. And who knows - maybe one of the people mentioned in this collection will rightfully receive a change of heart from the public in the nearest future? In the meantime, please feel free to scroll the list to the very end and maybe add some celebrities who you think should also be featured here.

#16 Lena Headey

Leana Headey, according to an interview she received a lot of hate when she played Cersei in game of thrones. I guess some people can’t separate reality from film. Shows how great of an actress she is

Image credits: No-Okra-2924

#17 Chester Bennington

Linkin Park, but more specifically, Chester Bennington.

He was bullied severely in high school for being skinny. He was also sexually abused as a child, so he wrote about his feelings. He was addicted to several drugs before he even turned 17. He did so much for his fans like even with a broken hand he continued to perform, but then the band changed genres went a little less heavy more softer instruments, but the lyrics were just as deep. The loudest fans didn't care they hated it. They bullied the band intensely. In 2006, Chester had a cyberstalker who wouldn't leave him or his family alone, the reasoning she gave when she got caught? "I was bored," she tortured Chester, put him on edge even after she was caught

Image credits: QuestioningMIL

#18 Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse. Once “rehab” hit and she became that pinup girl with the drug problem icon, it was all but over. Media played her out like Britney or others, but in reality she was a talented musician who wrote all her own songs and brought a modern style of jazz to what was otherwise pop b******t at the time. Didn’t help her father and partner used her for all she was worth till the end.

Image credits: brewit_drinkit

#19 Lindsay Lohan

Lindsey Lohan- overworked and pimped out by her parents

Image credits: HRPurrfrockington

#20 Antonio Salieri

Salieri. Pretty chill dude. Mozart's biggest supporter. Lent him his libretista so he could write Figaro. Took care of Mozart's kid after he passed away.

Image credits: veriverd

#21 Jake Lloyd

The guy who played Kid Anakin

He was bullied so hard that it ruined all the love he had for Star Wars.

Image credits: Mindless-Athlete2390

#22 Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette.

A well meaning, polite teen with next to zero knowledge of a world she wasn’t let near (by those who made the decisions for her). And then she was killed.

Image credits: Ok-Painting4168

#23 Roscoe Arbuckle

Fatty Arbuckle. He went to prison for years when the DA tried him for death of a starlit. Later found innocent he was no longer welcome in Hollywood.

Image credits: ferretkona

#24 Tara Reid

Tara Reid. She did not drive drunk. She did not kill anybody with her car. She did not get arrested. She partied a lot and her boob fell out. That’s it. Also, if memory serves, she was treated horribly by Carson Daly.

Image credits: westsideHK

#25 Sulli

Sulli

She was a k-pop idol who was driven to [taking her own life] by from malicious netizens who hated her for being outspoken in a conservative society.

When she passed people even said she was just too weak.

Image credits: reffy336

#26 Guy Fieri

Guy Fieri. People dog on him for no reason. He has a fun tv show and I've heard he does a lot for charity.

Image credits: cwfs1007

#27 Jack Gleeson

The guy who played Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson)

EDIT: if this is untrue then i'll be more than happy to be downvoted, that guy played his role to perfection.

Image credits: vashmeow

#28 Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps - IMO, he could have denied that picture of him smoking marijuana was actually him since it was unclear. At the end of the day he didn’t deny it and lost some serious endorsements if I remember right.

Not a big deal.

Image credits: bpcollin

#29 Milli Vanilli

Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan. They weren't told until after they had already signed the contracts and spent an advance from the record label on new clothes and hair extensions for their promo shoots that they wouldn't be singing on the album. They couldn't afford to pay back the advance so they said they would stick with the label until they made enough money to pay them back. When the lipsync scandal went down they got all the blame for it.

Image credits: stephers85

#30 Rebecca Black

Rebecca Black. Got ROASTED hard at 14 years old for the song Friday. Patrice Wilson was the producer and got paid by both Black’s mom and a good chunk of the proceeds but he flew under the radar from the abuse. Granted, it’s a dumb song, but the hatred was immense for a 14 year old kid.