Inverse stopped clock
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An inverse stopped clock refers to a situation in which someone who is usually logical, rational, or correct does or believes something idiotic or crazy. Also referred to as "Sometimes even geniuses make mistakes," or the common phrase "Nobody's perfect."
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[edit] Explanation
Due to the imperfect nature of human beings, even reasonable people — including people widely respected for being reasonable — will make a mistake every now and then, often by chance alone. Perhaps something cranky (e.g. a conspiracy theory) appeals to someone's ideology and they go with it, even if they're usually correct on other subjects. Other times they may panic and do something stupid in response to a sometimes exaggerated threat or situation. The difference between these people and other cranks is that they are usually not crazy, but every time an inverse stopped clock situation takes place their reputation becomes slightly more soiled. (The degree of stupidity also makes a difference, and if the moment is crazy enough they may never be able to live it down, with everything they say being up for question after the incident.)
The most dangerous part of the inversed stopped clock is that the crankery supported may be given much more weight than if it was supported by a known nutjob, due to the usually decent/sane reputation of the person promoting it. The opposite could also happen, and the person's one crank belief will become, again, mainly what they are known for, leaving the rest of their work marginalized by association. An example of the latter is Peter Duesberg and his HIV denialism.
[edit] Examples
- John Quincy Adams' anti-Masonic views and supporting the Hollow Earth theory.
- Buzz Aldrin: Apollo 11 pilot, second human to walk on the Moon, outspoken advocate of further space exploration, the man who gave Bart Sibrel a richly-deserved punch in the face... and a global warming denialist.
- David Attenborough endorsing the aquatic ape hypothesis.
- Christiaan Barnard, the doctor who first transplanted a human heart, opposed Apartheid and... supported a worthless anti-aging product banned by the FDA shortly after he lent his support.
- Harry Elmer Barnes, once a respected historian, endorsing Holocaust denial.
- Richard Dawkins making outlandish statements on gender, rape, Islam and even apologizing for pedophilia (Oh, how the mighty have fallen).
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: creator of Sherlock Holmes, human rights activist, early opponent of racism, and dogmatic believer in spiritualism.
- Martin Heidegger enthusiastically supporting Nazism and Hitler in 1933, and enforcing the Nazi racial laws at the University of Freiburg.
- Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist in the mid-19th century who opposed slavery, the Yellow Peril, attacked corrupt political bosses... and was vehemently racist against the Irish.
- Thomas Paine believing that George Washington conspired with Maximilien de Robespierre to have Paine imprisoned during the French Revolution.
- Rousseau's promotion of a strictly patriarchal nuclear family, necessitating wives to submit to their husbands to a degree well beyond the standards of his day.
- Gore Vidal being a Pearl Harbor and 9/11 truther, and responding to a bad book review by blaming the Jews.
- Alfred Russel Wallace being a spiritualist and anti-vaxxer.