Some are singled out for a hagiographic treatment. When others discover issues with their thoughts or lives, the switch is flipped and they become worthy of being burned. They are either valorized or demonized. This has happened to countless intellectuals: Voltaire, Jefferson, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Heidegger, and thousands more.

It's all quite infantile. The better approach is one born of maturity. Read everything and everyone and learn what you can and toss out what's wrong. Of course this requires work and thought. In fact, the saint/witch dichotomy is merely a mask for laziness. It's a way of finding a fast track to truth that dispenses with the arduous task of actual research.