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
* Supressing undesired behavior by justifying other reasons
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* 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

For the drug, see Methamphetamine; for the exceptionally silly awesome movie, you need to be elsewhere

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:

See also

External links

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