On Apr 4, 4:07=A0pm, George Hammond <Nowhe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote: just
the usual BS
Crackpot: one writes or speaks in an authoritative fa****on about a
particular subject, often in science, based on false or
even ludicrous beliefs. The rise of the Internet has given an outlet
to people well outside
the mainstream who may get labeled crackpots through internet
postings promoting particular beliefs
The universal characteristics of crackpots include:
Crackpots overestimate their own knowledge and ability, and
underestimate that of acknowledged experts.
Crackpots insist that their alleged discoveries are urgently
im****tant.
Crackpots rarely if ever acknowledge any error, no matter how
trivial.
Crackpots love to talk about their own beliefs, often in
inappropriate social situations, but they tend to be bad listeners,
and often
appear to be uninterested in anyone else's experience or opinions.
Some crackpots exhibit a lack of academic achievement, in which case
they typically assert that academic training in the subject of their
crank belief is not only unnecessary for discovering "the truth", but
actively harmful because they believe it "poisons" the minds by
teaching falsehoods.
Others greatly exaggerate their personal achievements, and may insist
that some alleged achievement in some entirely unrelated area of
human endeavor implies that their crackpot opinion should be taken
seriously.
Crackpots so often seem to represent, not individuals with an
exceptional degree of knowledge, but rather individuals with an
exceptional degree of ignorance concerning the subject of their
belief(s)
Many crackpots also exhibit deficiencies in reading comprehension,
logical reasoning, and other cognitive abnormalities, which may
contribute both to how they arrive at some bizarre counterfactual
belief in the first place, and to how they are able to cling to such
a belief in the face of all objections.
Thay also may seem to exhibit certain symptoms of grandiosity or
megalomania. This may perhaps also be understood as resulting from a
simultaneous overinflation of their own social value and
underestimation of the social value of others
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