> how hard it is to have an opinion outside of the mainstream.
You can very easily have an opinion outside of the mainstream, but when that opinion turns out to be wrong then don't expect people to treat you as a smart person anymore or even as a "genius" (to quote the BBC).
In fact, anyone taking a speculative line of inquiry, with any vigour, will by definition, 'be wrong' probably quite a lot.
Especially if they have to pursue the subject alone, it with a million 'opponents' who are such due as much to ideology than anything else.
Every 'genius' you care to mention will have been 'very wrong' about many things, but because they were 'wrong' about issues that weren't politicized, we don't care.
Dyson is the opposite of a hack, and probably not ideological about whatever it is he wants to talk about ...
... these are exactly the kinds of geniuses we shouldn't mind 'being wrong'.
You can very easily have an opinion outside of the mainstream, but when that opinion turns out to be wrong then don't expect people to treat you as a smart person anymore or even as a "genius" (to quote the BBC).