"They laughed at Copernicus. They laughed at the Wright Brothers. Yes, well, they also laughed at the Marx Brothers. Being laughed at does not mean you are right."
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In what I call the Galileo Gambit (I have not found any other name for it) the writer compares herself (or whoever she is supporting) to some famous person, noting some alleged similarity (an argument by analogy). Examples:
"They persecuted Galileo, and now they are persecuting me. One day my theory will be accepted."
"Don't lecture me about my report card. Eisenstein was a poor student and look how he turned out."
"So what if none of my paintings have sold? Van Gough never sold any of his paintings while he was alive. Now they sell for millions of dollars."
A popular variation is to note that in the past scientists were often wrong, so they may be wrong now. Example:
"Before Columbus sailed scientists thought that the earth was flat. They were wrong then, and they are wrong about my free energy machine now. Just wait and see."
There are several problems with the Galileo Gambit. Some of the examples are wrong. Galileo was persicuted by the church, not by other scientists, and he was truly persecuted. He was placed under house arrest and threatened with torture. And scientists realized that the earth was round centuries before Columbus. The main problem is that for every Galileo there are hundreds of pseudo-scientists whose theories have long been forgotten.
Here are two more examples of the Galileo Gambit, both from Steven Milloy.
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