Crank
| We control what you think with |
| Said and done |
| Jargon, buzzwords, slogans |
“”Question: Why do debunkers sound so moronic? Is it just because they have their heads stuck up the matrix? or is it their family genetics giving them a predisposition to slavery?
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| —busa, "Senior Member", David Icke forums[1] |
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 straightedge and a compass, to Biblical literalists in the creationism movement.
Synonyms include kook, contrarian, 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 |
[edit] Debating a crank
“”It is not my nature to compromise and I resent it heavily when I have to. I would rather lose completely and suffer any penalty, up to and including death, than compromise.[2]
I'd rather be totally, completely, absolutely wrong rather than be wishy-washy and end up doing the "right" thing.[3] Remember, it is better to be confidently wrong than to be diffidently right.[4] |
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If you value your time and/or sanity, then under no circumstances should you willingly enter into debate with a crank. A crank's cognitive processes are impregnable to all forms of logic, reason, evidence, and in extreme cases, basic facts.
Crank debaters tend to be much more motivated than you are. This enthusiasm is a big part of what makes them cranks. This means that the crank will have heard all of the common objections to their crankiness. The crank has memorized canned responses to each of them.
A common tactic of cranks is to hide behind elaborate rhetoric; if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. An extravagantly ornate lexicon filled with polysyllabic vocabulary will be utilized unnecessarily, inappropriately, and often erroneously, because if their opposition's comprehension is obfuscated, it's because their opponent is cogitatively inadequate and not because the crank malcommunicates. Never expect a fancy word such as "terse" to grace their tongues. Superfluous rhetoric itself is not proof of crankery, but is a good warning sign.
All of this has the practical upshot of rendering the debate a fantastic waste of calories.
[edit] The worst of the cranks
Well known cranks (in alphabetical order) and some of their "ideas" include:
- Aleister Crowley - Magic powers, demon and angel summoning, being the Great Beast 666.
- Alex Chiu - Immortality magnets.
- Alex Jones - Crank grandmaster. New World Order, 9/11 denialism, Federal Reserve hysteria, climate change denialism, (insert conspiracy of the week here), ad nauseam.
- Andrew Schlafly - Creationism, abortion causes breast cancer, liberalism causes all societal ills, revised chronology, AIDS denialism, and many more.
- Andy Kadir-Buxton - slapping people on the head to cure mental illness
- Charles Berlitz - The Bermuda Triangle.
- Charles Coughlin, Roman Catholic Priest and radio preacher noted for anti-Federal Reserve crankery and international bankers conspiricism.
- David Icke - Another crank grandmaster. Alternate history, alien races, conspiracy theories.
- 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?
- David Sereda - Shroud of Turin, zero-point energy, anti-gravity, solfeggio frequencies.
- Dennis Prager - climate change denier, conspiracy theorist, DDT wackiness, homophobia, "Islamophobia".
- Drunvalo Melchizedek - believes that through meditation the human being is able to access sources of information (the Akashik Records) and receive guidance about his/her spiritual advancement.
- Duane Gish - creationist writer and professional debate-mangler.
- Edgar Cayce - Various prophecies, Atlantis, reincarnation.
- Eric S. Raymond - Gun rights, HIV denialism, global warming denial, libertarianism.
- Erich von Däniken - Chariots of the Gods.
- Ernst Zündel - Holocaust denial, Hollow Earth, secret Nazi bases in Antarctica, Nazi UFOs.
- 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.
- Fred Phelps - World famous cult leader and crazed anti-gay ideologue. He is not gay.
- Gene Ray - Time Cube
- Glenn Beck - If you don't know, you haven't been paying attention.
- Helen Caldicott - Conspiratorial thinking and misinformation about nuclear radiation.
- Immanuel Velikovsky - Planetary catastrophism, a revised chronology, and more.
- Israel Shamir - Anti-Semitic Holocaust denier affiliated with WikiLeaks.
- Jenny McCarthy - Tireless Anti-vaccinationist.
- John A. Davison - Proscribed evolution.
- John Brandenburg - the "thermonuclear war on Mars" guy.
- Joseph Smith - Alternate history, alien races, magic underwear; founder of Mormonism.
- Judy Wood - Dustification of the WTC
- Kerry Cassidy - Everything is a false flag.
- L. Ron Hubbard - Alternate history, alien races; founder of Scientology.
- 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.
- 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, sexism, hatred for just about anyone who is not a Christian.
- Mike Adams - proprietor of the website NaturalNews.
- 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.
- Peter Duesberg, Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos - AIDS denialism.
- 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.
- Richard C. Hoagland - "Face" on Mars, aliens, NASA conspiracy theories.
- Richard Shaver - Subterranean cities and their malevolent inhabitants, the Dero.
- Sean Manchester - Vampire hunter and self-proclaimed "Catholic Bishop".
- Texe Marrs - NWO conspiracy theories, fundamentalist Christianity, anti-Semitism.
- Todd Bentley - Christian faith healing through kicking and punching.
- Tom Bethell - Numerous forms of science denial.
- Uri Geller - Probably the best known popularizer of telekinesis through his spoon-bending trick.
- Wilhelm Reich - orgone energy.
- Zecharia Sitchin - Reinterpreter of Sumerian mythology and perpetuator of the "Zeta Reticuli" alien conspiracy theory.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Crank Dot Net, a directory of crank (and anti-crank) websites.
- MarkH (May 31, 2007). "Crank HOWTO". Denialism blog. http://web.archive.org/web/20100310171832/http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2007/05/crank_howto.php.
[edit] References
- ↑ David Icke's Official Forums - View Single Post - Cattle mutilations : aliens?
- ↑ http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/User_talk:LANCBUser/Archive2#Vandal_bin.
- ↑ http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=RationalWiki:Chicken_coop&diff=1629631&oldid=1629630
- ↑ http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=RationalWiki:Chicken_coop&diff=1629624&oldid=1629623