Even more than "Man vs. the Universe" stories, he went for "Free, Rational Man vs. the Irrational Masses" stories: see Nightfall, an Asimov classic based on a Campbell idea and edited by him. Through his influence on Robert Heinlein, A.E. Van Vogt, and other writers, he indirectly was a major influence on the libertarian movement. His predilection for stories that appealed to his own adolescent self--an alienated, socially inept, and intelligent boy with an aptitude for science and big ideas--was directly responsible for the creation of SF fandom as we know it today--and, in a less successful way, for the creation of characters like Wesley Crusher.
If you're into geek culture, then Campbell might be the most important person you've never heard of.
The first is that he did more than anyone else to promote the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, and Analog was the place where Hubbard's writing on Dianetics was first published. Although he later broke away, Campbell was definitely a believer in Hubbard's early work. Without him we may have had no Scientology.
Secondly, a number of the editorials in Analog in the 60s were mildly racist, and definitely disapproving of the civil rights movement. Isaac Asimov said that this racism, extended was what made Campbell dislike stories with aliens that were more powerful than humans, and this in turn made Asimov avoid writing stories with aliens until after Campbell's death.
Also Campbell, while approving of science, seemed to have a shaky idea of the border between science and pseudo-science, at least as far as the 'factual' articles published in Analog go.
Despite all this though, without this man science fiction and possibly libertarian politics as we know them would never have happened. Remove his influence and E2 would be a very different place...
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