'Nothing To See Here'

One good thing about being repeatedly told that your research is pointless because so much work has already been done on it by people who don't really understand your work is it forces you to think long and hard not just about the substance of your research but how you present it. The other good thing is you become to inured to the criticism. So inured that you don't even want to prove your critics wrong. You just want to get on with your research because you find it fascinating and you don't care if any of your critics ever read it. The way I see it is even if my work is bullshit at least I am trying to do something different. At least its not the same old bullshit.
There are two ways of being a conformist. One is to rail against established doctrine, either alone (which requires tremendous resilience) or as part of a tribe of heretics. The other is to disengage as much as possible with the mainstream and do your own thing. Don't debate or argue except to defend your own work. Definitely don't proselytize. Whether one chooses the former or  the latter is down more to one's personality than anything else.