Modern Gadfly

So what is a Gadfly? Well, a gadfly is someone who annoys or provokes people by being critical. Socrates was known as a gadfly in his time because he annoyed and provoked people by questioning their reasoning. He was so much of a pest to society that we was sentenced to death. Today, we don't really have a man like Socrates who goes around questioning people's beliefs and making people feel uncomfortable, but we do have many people who stealthily question societal ideas through music, films, comedy, etc. Although they do not annoy society enough to be sentenced to death like Socrates was, they still stir up controversy and annoy certain people in society with their opinionated statements. Lewis Black is a great example of a comedian who likes to ridicule history, trends, religion, politics, and many other topics. Movies like Heathers and Fight Club also touch up on societal issues in a critical manner. There are a variety of songs that also criticize political ideas and social norms in a way that can aggravate many people in society. Different people talk about many different topics but I think that the people who are the biggest gadflies are the ones that criticize religion because they will receive the most opposition for their statements. All in all, I don't think that there is a single modern day gadfly in today's society that can compare to Socrates, but there are definitely many critics in society that aggravate and annoy certain people.