People are talking about the greatest guitarists. Rolling Stone started it with its wildly inconsistent top 100 list.

What I'd like to know is, where are the people like Django Rheinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith, or even John Scofield, James Blood Ulmer, and Sonny Sharrock? Good god man, you might not dig every one of those guys, but surely any of them warrant inclusion in place of some guy from The White Stripes, or Kirk Hammett. Even self-indulgent, maximal "too many notes" guys like John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola, and Paco De Lucia deserve a nod over some of those knuckleheads, especially given the endless genuflection those guys seemed to earn in the 70s and 80s from guitar nerds.

Wait...what about Chet Atkins or Doc Watson?

How about the great Motown trio of Joe Messina, Robert White, and Eddie Willis, who played on more hits than I think anyone can even count?

Everyone's got Robert Johnson which is right and good, but how about Son House, Fred McDowell, or Charlie Patten? As I was saying a few days ago, there'd be no modern rock guitar heroics were it not for these guys.

some real strange ones at the top....
What's Duane Allman doing at no.2?!
And BB at no.3?! - a nice way with little licks, but hardly a guitar hero.
And Joni Mitchell?!? hahaha!!!

"where are the people like Django Rheinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith, or even John Scofield, James Blood Ulmer, and Sonny Sharrock?"

indeed
plenty more that could be added...

Clarence Gatemouth Brown
John Lee Hooker
Syd Barrett
Keith Rowe
Fred Frith
Stanley Jordan (just because nobody else can do what he does)
Keith Levine (possibly)

(John McLaughlin is there at no.49 btw)

As for Robert Johnson... ok fine; everyone should hear his recordings, but he's not unique. There are plenty of fine guitarists from back then. Johnson just happens to be the one everyone has heard of.
Son House, Fred McDowell, Charlie Patten, yes yes.
Also Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, and Blind Lemon Jefferson (for sheer versatility).

Well we can debate this all day. But I just noticed you've posted about Fred McDowell higher up. I'll go and read that entry now.