Crank
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* Claiming contrary evidence is fabricated | * Claiming contrary evidence is fabricated | ||
* Confuses open-mindedness with credibility | * Confuses open-mindedness with credibility | ||
| − | * | + | * Suppressing undesired behavior by justifying other reasons |
* Confusing being ignored as evidence of being right | * Confusing being ignored as evidence of being right | ||
Revision as of 22:16, 1 June 2013
Crank is a pejorative term applied to someone who holds extremely unorthodox views on a subject and is often very vocal about these opinions. A crank will usually maintain their viewpoint despite, or perhaps because of, evidence to the contrary. The crank is usually an amateur in the field they are arguing against, but sometimes individuals with expertise in that field will become a 'crank' (which can lead directly to pathological science); sometimes for personal gain, which is ironic because cranks often accuse rational people of being driven by personal gain.
Cranks emerge in all fields of study and hold a wide variety of inaccurate or unorthodox views, from being able to square the circle with a pencil and a compass, to Biblical literalists in the creationism movement.
Synonyms include kook and crackpot (the latter of which has led to the creation of the term "psychoceramics" as the name for the study of such people). Cranks who believe a lot of nutty things at once are sometimes said to suffer from crank magnetism.
Contents |
Characteristics
- Claim to special insight
- The "sheeple" argument
- Grandiose yet trite statements generalizing the course of human history
- Belief in a powerful cabal controlling governments
- Simplifying complex problems to few or single variables
- Thinking in dichotomies
- Advocacy of minimal government
- Persecution or oppression complex
- Inability to separate personal biases from worldview
- Insipid platitudes
- Self publishing
- Obvious logical fallacies
- Misusing academic jargon
- Working in isolation
- Pitching results outside of professional journals
- Failing to acknowledge the body of work they build upon
- Disagrees with academic consensus
- Lack of credentials
- Well credentialed academics disagreeing with consensus outside their expertise
- Paranoia
- Favorably comparing oneself to famous intellectuals
- Claiming non-falsifiable claims as "scientific"
- Not understanding the difference between observational and empirical science
- Insisting on pedantry from opponents
- Substituting word play for argument ("Gays have the same right to marry anyone of the opposite sex as everyone else")
- Scapegoating an unfavored group
- Claiming contrary evidence is fabricated
- Confuses open-mindedness with credibility
- Suppressing undesired behavior by justifying other reasons
- Confusing being ignored as evidence of being right
Famous cranks
Well known cranks (in alphabetical order by surname) and their ideas include:
- Neal Adams - Expanding earth
- Glenn Beck - If you don't know, you haven't been paying attention.
- Nick Begich, Jr - HAARP
- Todd Bentley - Christian faith healing through kicking and punching.
- Charles Berlitz - The Bermuda Triangle
- Steven Best - animal rights extremism and collaboration with ecoterrorists.
- Tom Bethell - Numerous forms of science denial.
- Sylvia Browne - Psychic powers, spirit channeling/medium
- Helen Caldicott - Conspiratorial thinking and misinformation about nuclear radiation.
- Edgar Cayce - Various prophecies, Atlantis, reincarnation
- Alex Chiu - Immortality magnets
- Charles Coughlin, Roman Catholic Priest and radio preacher noted for anti-Federal Reserve crankery and international bankers conspiricism.
- Aleister Crowley - Magic powers, demon and angel summoning, being the Great Beast 666
- Erich von Däniken - Chariots of the Gods
- John A. Davison - Proscribed evolution
- Mark Dice - Evolution denialism, climate change denialism, creationism, NWO conspiracy theories, Federal Reserve hysteria, arrogant social conservatism, being extremely arrogant and condescending towards dissent, immense hypocrisy
- Maxine Dietrich - Founder of Joy of Satan, a neo-Nazi Satanic UFO cult
- Peter Duesberg, Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos - AIDS denialism
- Roger Elvick - Sovereign citizen movement, tax protest
- Anatoly Fomenko - Russian mathematician and pseudohistorian
- Uri Geller - Telekinesis
- Duane Gish - creationist writer and professional debate-mangler
- Madison Grant - Eugenics
- Richard C. Hoagland - "Face" on Mars, aliens, NASA conspiracy theories.
- L. Ron Hubbard - Alternate history, alien races; founder of Scientology.
- Derrick Jensen - Hard green philosopher and ecoterrorism apologist.
- Alex Jones - New World Order, 9/11 denialism, Federal Reserve hysteria, climate change denialism, (insert conspiracy of the week here), ad nauseam
- Supreme Master Ching Hai - Messianic cult leader
- David Icke - Alternate history, alien races, conspiracy theories
- Andy Kadir-Buxton - slapping people on the head to cure mental illness
- James Keegstra - Canadian antisemitic conspiracy theorist.
- James Howard Kunstler - Self-proclaimed peak oil expert, known for his excessive doomsday scenarios.
- Ray Kurzweil - Transhumanism, specifically in its manifestation as utopian magical thinking, immortality fantasies, and Rapture analogues. BS artist extraordinaire. Keeps making fantastical predictions of the future that fail to pan out.
- Pentti Linkola - Ecofascism. This is one of the few cases in which the term is used literally, as opposed to, say, the Right's hyperbolic whining about the EPA, Kyoto Protocols, etc.
- Sean Manchester - Vampire hunter and self-proclaimed "Catholic Bishop"
- Maratrean, founder of an eponymous religion.
- Texe Marrs - NWO conspiracy theories, fundamentalist Christianity, anti-Semitism
- Eustace Mullins - Anti-New World Order and anti-Semitic writer who, at the (alleged) behest of American fascist poet Ezra Pound, wrote about how the Jews -- specifically the Rothschilds -- created the Federal Reserve in order to destroy the American economy and make us all wage slaves, or something like that.
- Ron Paul - Libertarian presidential candidate with a massive following among basement-dwelling conspiracy cranks.
- Lawrence Pazder, Michelle Smith - Satanic ritual abuse
- Fred Phelps - World famous cult leader and crazed anti-gay ideologue.
- Sayyid Qutb - Islamic literalism
- Gene Ray - Time Cube
- Eric S. Raymond - Gun rights, HIV denialism, global warming denial, libertarianism
- Luke Rudkowski - New World Order conspiracy theories, Federal Reserve conspiracy theories, blind support for Ron Paul, leader and founder of Paulbot Cheersquad group We Are Change, arrogance towards those who show dissent towards his views. Surprisingly, neither Rudkowski nor his group have Wikipedia pages
- Michael Ruppert - Peak oil, 9/11 conspiracy theories, CIA drug trafficking in south central Los Angeles conspiracy theories
- Viera Scheibner - Anti-vaccinationist
- Andrew Schlafly - Creationism, abortion causes breast cancer, liberalism causes all societal ills, revised chronology, AIDS denialism, and many more. (But he's not really "famous", even in quotes.)
- Israel Shamir - Anti-Semitic Holocaust denier affiliated with WikiLeaks.
- Richard Shaver - Subterranean cities and their malevolent inhabitants, the Dero.
- David Shayler - 9/11 truther, anti-Semite, Jewish NWO believer, self-declared Messiah.
- Sherry Shriner - Alien races, New World Order, the power of ORGONE
- Bart Sibrel - Moon landing hoax (famous for being punched by Buzz Aldrin)
- Zecharia Sitchin - Reinterpreter of Sumerian mythology and perpetuator of the "Zeta Reticuli" alien conspiracy theory
- Joseph Smith - Alternate history, alien races, magic underwear; founder of Mormonism
- David J Stewart - webmaster of Jesus Is Savior website, conspiracy theories, arrogant conservativism, pseudohistory, racism, antisemetism, evolution denialism, climate change denialism, endorsement of other cranks, need more be said?
- Whitley Strieber - Alien abduction crank
- Frederick Trexler - Petrified Human Brain
- Immanuel Velikovsky - Planetary catastrophism, a revised chronology, and more
- Thomas Woods - Catholic Golden Age
- Eliezer Yudkowsky - Singularitarianism, cryonics
- Ernst Zündel, David Irving - Holocaust denial
See also
External links
- Crank Dot Net—directory of crank (and anti-crank) websites.
- The Crank How-To, Denialism blog