He didn't have to sacrifice nearly as much as Assange, Snowden, or Scholl, and his renown is proportionally smaller, but "beacon of sanity while the world was going crazy around them" is also how I see Pat Buchanan's relationship to US conservative politics (https://www.theamericanconservative.com/against-buchananism/).

These people were not particularly eloquent, or intelligent, or talented, or insightful; but they were there, they were sane, and they spoke out. Though their battles ended mostly in defeat, they helped clear the path for future victories.