"" (or '''kook''', '''crackpot''', or ''' Quack ''') is a Pejorative term for a person who writes or speaks in an authoritative fashion about a particular subject, often of a Scientific or Pseudo-scientific nature, but is perceived as holding false or even ludicrous beliefs. is also used as a noun to describe the opinions of such people See American Heritage Dictionary 2000 - noun definition 3 . Usage of the label is often subjective, with proponents of competing theories labeling each other cranks, but the term principally refers to someone who occupies a position outside of widely accepted beliefs or mainstream opinion on a matter, as well as a person of dubious mental stability.
The belief that the earth revolves around the sun was once considered a crank belief, so the mainstream consensus on crank beliefs can change. On the other hand, while most cranks think of or portray themselves as a new Galileo whose superior insight will be vindicated, for every Galileo there are thousands (or more) of cranks who will never achieve such recognition or acceptance.
Regardless of whether they are acting in good faith, cranks in all subject areas use similar tactics in their attempts to persuade the general public. The following set of tactics are frequently employed by ''science cranks'' :
- The (apparent) offering of cash rewards to anyone who can disprove the theory in question; for example, Dr. Gene Ray has offered a $10,000 reward to Wikipedia (or to any academic institution or professor) who can disprove his Time Cube Theory .
- Grandiose claims for the validity and scope of the theory (see Glittering Generality ).
- Stated belief that a Conspiracy by the scientific establishment (or other persons in authority) is hindering uptake of the theory (or implementation of the invention, product, or discovery).
- Use of Neologism s without proper definition.
- Comparison of the originator to notable scientists whose theories were, at first, discounted by the Mainstream scientific community; favorites include comparisons to Einstein , Newton , Galileo , Copernicus and Galois .
- Direct communication of the idea to the Media , typically holding a Press Conference before going through the well-established Peer Review process of publishing in scholarly journals (this was one reason for criticism of Cold Fusion , the discoverers of which held a press conference in Utah before their claims had been replicated).
- Some cranks claim that the observable effects of their theory are at or beyond the current limits of scientific detection (see N-rays ; some skeptics also associate this tactic with the advocates of Superstrings ).
- Lack of a working prototype where one might expect it to convince a skeptical audience (see Perpetual Motion machines).
- Extensive use of Testimonials (as opposed to using the results of a Scientifically Controlled Experiment or a Clinical Trial ); for example, in advertising, where testimonials by users of a crank therapy make claims that would be against FDA anti-fraud regulations if the purveyor were to make the claims outright.
- Claims that something is proved to work because there is a Patent on it, when the patent is actually a Design Patent , which protects only ornamentation, rather than a Utility Patent , or when the patent only covers an insignificant aspect of the patented subject matter.
- A variation of the above claim, is the assertion that something must work because it has a patent on it. The claim usually goes that standard patent office stall tactics have been used to delay the timely complettion of the patent application without good cause.
- Cranks often use other well-documented Propoganda Techniques such as creating a Straw Man , The Fallacy Of The Single Cause , Scapegoating , Rationalization s, Stereotyping Or Simple "name Calling" , the Myth Of The Silver Bullet Solution , etc.
Science fiction author and critic Bruce Sterling noted in his essay in CATSCAN 13 {Link without Title} :
:There's supposed to be a lot of difference between the hurtful online statement "You're a moron," and the tastefully facetious statement "You're a moron :-)". I question whether this is really the case, Emoticon or no. And even the emoticon doesn't help much in one's halting interaction with the occasional online stranger who is, in fact, gravely Sociopath ic. Online communication can wonderfully liberate the tender soul of some well-meaning personage who, for whatever reason, is physically uncharismatic. Unfortunately, online communication also fertilizes the eccentricities of hopeless cranks, who at last find themselves in firm possession of a wondrous Soapbox that the Trilateral Commission and the Men In Black had previously denied them.
"Kook" is a somewhat similar '' is also the name of a Bird , in this context, it is intended to be a pejorative term associated with Mental Illness .
Predictably, "kooks" tend to draw criticism and generate controversy; it has been speculated that some kooks are motivated by a desire for such attention.
The word ''crank'' can be traced back to 1833, where the Oxford English Dictionary describes it as "A person with a mental twist; one who is apt to take up eccentric notions or impracticable projects"Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989), probably related to "An eccentric notion or action; a mental twist put into practice". An item in ''Nature'' magazine in 1906 noted that "A crank is defined as a man who cannot be turned. These men are all cranks" ''Nature'', 8 Nov 1906, 25/2.
''Crackpot'' first appears in print in 1883: "My aunty knew lots, and called them crack-pots"''Broadside Ballad'', 1883
A ''kook'' is a more recent word, which some sources say was first recorded in 1960 in Britain's '' Daily Mail '' newspaper which noted that "A kook, Daddy-O, is a screwball who is 'gone' farther than most" ''Daily Mail'', 22 Aug 1960, 4/5. Others place the origin of the word ''kook'' one year earlier, in 1959, as part of American teen-ager slang {Link without Title} .
The following topics are often associated with cranks:
- Claims to have produced solutions to problems which have been Proven To Be Unsolvable , such as the geometric construction problems of Squaring The Circle , Doubling The Cube and Trisecting The Angle . (These problems all have solutions if one is permitted tools beyond a straightedge and compass).
- Lossless Data Compression that can ''always'' reduce the size of Random Data .
- Unbreakable Cryptographic Cipher s (other than the One-time Pad ).
- Finding a simple proof for Fermat's Last Theorem , the Goldbach Conjecture , the Four Color Theorem and other easy-to-understand mathematical problems.
- Claims to have devised an always efficient Algorithm for solving computational problems that are assumed to be intractable, e.g., SAT.
- Attempts at disproving Cantor's Diagonal Argument or Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem .
- Perpetual Motion , perhaps the earliest example of kookery; some cranks claim that a perpetual motion machine can be invented that would produce more energy than it consumed (which, if true, would violate the scientific law of Conservation Of Energy .
- Producing unified Theories Of Everything , and particularly doing so with high school or undergraduate level physics knowledge, or attempting to extend such theories to incorporate knowledge gathered by claimed experimental data (such as Astral Projection ).
- Attempts at disproving Quantum Mechanics , the Theory Of Relativity and other accepted but counterintuitive theories.
- Cold Fusion . (perhaps one of the most contentious listings in this article, as a minority of researchers are convinced that they have duplicated it)
- VMSK and other "ultra narrowband" modulation schemes whose claims violate the Shannon-Hartley Theorem .
- Flat Earth Society .
- Modern Geocentrism .
- The Bogdanov Affair .
- Creation Science proponents who ascribe scientific terminology to an otherwise wholly-unscientific philosophy.
- Claims that Comets are typically composed of Antimatter , and may therefore be used as a revolutionary source of fuel. {Link without Title}
- ).
- Claims that a wide range of illnesses (''e.g.'', all Cancer s) have a common cause (''e.g.'', eating diary products, wearing shoes, or lack of an unknown vitamin) and can be easily cured or prevented by treating said cause (see the "Silver Bullet Myth" ).
- Mainstream Physician s who, during the mid-twentieth century, systematically dismissed mounting scientific evidence as to the effects of diet on Heart Disease .
- Faith Healing (see this same entry under the topic of ''Paranormal and spiritual'').
- Phrenology , especially when used in (pseudo-) Psychiatric diagnosis.
- Psychic Surgery .
- Medical illnesses neither recognised nor under consideration for inclusion by the World Health Organization into its International Classification Of Diseases . Examples include Mucoid Plaque .
- Psychiatric illnesses neither recognised nor under consideration for inclusion into the DSM-IV . For example, some cranks still believe that Homosexuality , which was de-listed from the DSM in 1973 , should be considered a form of Mental Illness .
- Magnetic Therapy .
- " Q-Ray " therapy, e.g. with emissions from a "Q-Ray" bracelet.
- Mud Therapy , wherein therapeutic effects are supposed to be gained by drinking mud.
- Attempts at Treatment when no attempt at prior Diagnosis is made. This is an imprecise area — for example, physicians faced with a child with Strep Throat may start an antibiotic without waiting for a positive laboratory result, because the balance of benefit if Streptococci are causative outweighs unnecessary treatment if the Throat Culture comes back negative.
This field also attracts many cranks; some typical topics are:
- Lopsided Diet s that forbid or severely limit one or more necessary Nutrient s. Examples include extreme Low-carbohydrate or Low-fat diets.
- Raw Food Diet s to the extent that cooked food is believed to be actively harmful (as opposed, for example, to claims that certain vitamins are lost in cooking, which are not disputed).
- Notions that certain common foods, such as Milk or Wheat , harmful or even fatal to everyone, including those with no history of food allergies or of Anaphylaxis .
- Macrobiotics , which emphasizes locally grown, Whole Grain Cereals , Pulses (legumes), Vegetable s, Fruit , Edible Seaweed and Fermented Soy Products , combined into meals according to the principle of balance between Yin And Yang properties, rather than scientific Dietary Guidelines .
Conspiracy Theories are also often alleged to be "cranky." Well known conspiracist movements include:
- Federal Reserve various conspiracies involving the federal reserve, Secret Societies , and international bankers.
- Spectral Evidence in which legal testimony based on apparitions and dreams are considered admissible in a court of law.
- Apollo Moon Hoax a conspiracy theory which states that NASA "faked" the Apollo 11 Moon Landing .
- Global Warming conspiracy theorists, who believe that the Scientific Hypothesis of global warming is only an idea that was invented and promoted by Globalists , Marxists , or some other conspirators who want to "take over the world."
- John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories involving a second or third shooter, and assasination plots involving "the Mafia," the CIA , and the "military industrial complex" (See JFK The Movie by Oliver Stone ).
- 9/11 Conspiracy Theories there are several in this area; some examples would include the 9/11 "Truth" Movement , Steven E. Jones , Alex Jones , and Jim Hoffman .
- Holocaust Deniers these cranks claim that the holocaust "never happened" or was much smaller in scale than mainstream Historians state.
- New World Order / Trilateral Commission / Council On Foreign Relations conspiracy theorists about secret societies that are said to be plotting a one-world government.
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