The weirdness of ideas can also behave cyclically. Consider nuclear power. Until this year, it was roundly condemned as an unworkable solution to CO2 reduction

The weirdness of ideas can also behave cyclically. Consider nuclear power. Until this year, it was roundly condemned as an unworkable solution to CO2 reduction and energy supply. The waste problem hadn't been solved and never was going to be. The effects of an accident, no matter how unlikely, were not worth the risk. That largely came about because of Fukushima accident a decade earlier. Prior to that point nuclear power was tolerated, if not welcomed. After that accident, the idea became weird. Plants were decommissioned and plans to build new plants shelved. Oddly enough nothing about nuclear power itself changed at those two inflection points. Same principles of operation. Same reactor designs (mostly). Same risks. Same potential. What changed was people's minds - on a large scale.