I like Horgan a lot, but it's notable he also made a very wrong prediction that traditional proofs in math would start losing out to less rigorous means of collecting evidence for correctness.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/okay-maybe-...

Although being a string theory skeptic was certainly a minority position in both academia and journalism in 1996, I think it's somewhat of an exaggeration to characterize it as a "super unpopular position" and Horgan and Anderson as the only prominent holders.