Quoted from somedude210

His protests and peace "shinanigans" also turned somepeople off cause he was too radical.

He wasn't radical enough! That 'bed-in' or 'peace-in' thing wasn't radical - it was just silly!

Every artist, heck every person, has someone who will dislike them for some petty reason. It means nothing. If there is any doubt on whether the beatles were liked or not look around. We are in 2005 and they are still well-liked and well remembered.

No kidding. They are still the biggest band in the world. Didn't One break their own record or something? No one will ever be bigger or more liked by a wide variety of people than the BEATLES! And who cares about Jesus loving Southerners? They only used Jesus as a reason to burn crosses and spew hatred anyway. And they probably weren't into the Beatles to begin with. Like John said, they were mostly middle aged men and 12 year old girls.

I think the original point here was that John Lennon was easily the most polarizing member of the band.  Paul may have taken a lot of criticism for producing overly commercial pop in the '70s, but John also took knocks for being too hardcore with his musical direction.  And there was the Yoko factor. And the peace movement, which historically is looked upon as an example of his great humanity, but at the time, most of the mainstream world -- including many Beatles fans -- thought the guy was going daffy with his bed-ins and bagism.

So yes, I think John was hated by certain segments of society in the 1970s.  But what truly great human being isn't hated?