Rejected by their own kind

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Quacks and pseudoscientists are said to be rejected by their own kind when they advance a claim so obviously bogus, even other promoters of the same pseudoscience can tell that it's bogus, and publicly go out of their way to debunk it. As Mark Hoofnagle pointed out in 2007, this is relatively uncommon; cranks/pseudoscientists/quacks tend to stand by each other and defend their claims much more often than not.[1] Such condemnation can therefore be seen as an unusual example of a crank being a stopped clock and recognizing exceptionally obvious bullshit.

Examples[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Or, to put that more bluntly, the majority of cranks still have just enough awareness of reality to not accidentally dismember themselves. Emphasis on "most of them", i.e. yes, there are people who are so intensely stupid that every day they manage to not get themselves killed is a minor miracle.

References[edit]

  1. Cranks are rarely bothered by other cranks, Denialism Blog, ScienceBlogs, May 29, 2007, Mark Hoofnagle
  2. Moon Dust Argument No Longer Useful, Creation, September 1993, p. 22
  3. AIG's list of arguments to avoid
  4. "Scientific Critique of Judy Wood’s Paper 'The Star Wars Beam Weapon'", James Gourley, Journal of 9/11 Studies
  5. Bravo Age of Autism, LeftBrainRightBrain, 2009-05-20
  6. Special Report: The Legend of Mike Adams and the Reality (Thomas Corriher and Sarah Cain, The Health Wyze Report, 06 Feb 2013).
  7. Paul Simpson, That's What They Want You to Think: Conspiracies Real, Possible, and Paranoid (Zenith Press, 2012), p. 177.