I Was Wrong - on something important

Thomas Cranmer was a leader in the English Reformation and the Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Henry VIII, Edward VI and for a short time during Mary I. Cranmer authored the Book of Common Prayer and instituted changes in doctrine, e.g., clerical celibacy. When Mary I became queen, these doctrinal changes were heresy since Mary I was Catholic. Cranmer was put on trial and recanted his position on doctrine but eventually was to be executed. The execution was set for 21 March 1556 and Cranmer was to give a final recanting and confession of sin. He began to do so but then renouncing his recantations saying, "And as for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy, and Antichrist with all his false doctrine." He put his hand in the fire to burn first then put himself in the fire. A remarkable thing about this is that many people thought that Cranmer had worked for the English Reformation out of a cynical desire for more power.

  This borders on the not-believable.  Comedienne, and celebrity political influencer,  Chelsea Handler says that until she was 40 (as of this post she is 47) she thought the sun and moon were the same thing. She thought the sun becomes the moon at night. When she was on a safari in Africa her sister pointed out that both the sun and moon were visible. That was, per testimony, her epiphany.  She stated this on late night TV on Jan 13, 2023. An article in People documents the entire thing. It is: https://people.com/tv/chelsea-handler-didnt-know-until-i-was-40-sun-moon-not-the-same/

 Brian Gitt is a former policy worker, lobbyist, consultant and entrepreneur.  Here is how he begins his 'I was wrong': "Just because you feel like you’re doing the right thing doesn’t mean you are. I have dedicated most of my life to protecting the environment. But I went about it the wrong way. I thought I was acting morally, protecting the well-being of people and the planet. In fact, I was harming both. I believed solar and wind power were the future—our only hope of avoiding environmental catastrophe. Fossil fuels were the enemy, ...I had been living in a fantasy world: perfectly fine for making me feel good about myself and my mission, but perfectly useless for making real environmental change. Full comments of Mr. Gitt at: https://www.americanexperiment.org/brian-gitt-chasing-utopian-energy-how-i-wasted-20-years-of-my-life/

  An anonymous post. The author starts " I was a true believer. I was a social justice organizer and facilitator before social justice overtook the world. I was on the forefront, introducing the concept of intersectionality to progressive organizations, and having people share their pronouns... " She and her partner (another woman) both gave birth to boys and raised them gender neutral. Then they realized that this was a mistake and was harming them. She still feels remorse for this mistake. Here is how she ends the post, " I am no longer a true believer. This experience for me has felt like leaving a cult, a cult that would have me sacrifice my child to the gods of gender ideology, in the name of social justice and collective liberation. I have left this cult, and I am never turning back. Once one brick was pulled out of the wall holding up this belief system, the rest of the bricks tumbled.... Whatever may emerge, the protection of my children will be the comp...

In 1987, Russell Jacoby, then a leftist professor at UCLA, published a book.  It was called, " The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe ".  During the 80s a number of conservatives raised alarms at the fast growing number of radicals on campus and their influence. The thesis of the book was that the Marxists, Maoists, etc. on campus were so unsocial and their writings so unreadable that they would not be triumph in the larger American culture.   Having witnessed the current state of culture, Jacoby realizes he made a bad mistake. The radicals, with their jargon and poorly reasoned ideas (Jacoby is still a leftist but dislikes jargon and poor reasoning) had gained great influence. His thoughts about why he was wrong are here .     .