Crank Magnetism

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Crank magnetism, a combination of crank and magnetic attraction, is the condition of being more likely to hold several beliefs at the same time that are either unscientific, irrational, or conspirational, rather than just one. Crank magnetism also denotes the tendency , even for people who are otherwise "single issue" believers, to accumulate more such beliefs over time. Crank magnetism can lead to one being seen as incoherent or telling lies, as they will be in a different world of meaning than what is compatible with most people.

Etymology

The physiologist and blogger Mark Hoofnagle, writing in the Denialism blog in 2007, coined the term "crank magnetism" to describe the propensity of such believers to hold multiple irrational, unsupported, and/or ludicrous beliefs that are often unrelated to one another, referring to William Dembski endorsing both a Holocaust denier and one of Peter Duesberg's pseudoscientific non-HIV theories.

Potential explanations

“ Individuals acting in a secretive fashion are often involved with UFO's or other paranormal phenomena, e.g. telephone explosions. ” — Excerpt from Unidentified Flying Outrage (chapter Unexplainable Behaviour) by the head of the Spaceology Department at the Correspondence College of (PTampa) in The Simpsons

It is generally expected that some people have 1 or 2 irrational or conspiratorial beliefs due to the irrational nature of being human or as a reaction to the reality that some conspiracy theories are actually true, such as the tobacco industry coverup of the health hazards of cigarettes. However, people who like conspiracy theories usually like lots of them.

Creationists are most likely to be on the right wing, while a New Ager is likely to hold spiritual beliefs from every corner of the globe. This suggests that there must be an underlying mechanism or ideal that attracts people to these ideas in general, rather than just the merit of the individual beliefs themselves. People who are fond of the theory of memetics would recognize this as a memeplex (a complex array of ideas of cultural significance that work together to reinforce each other) where a central idea allows others to attach themselves very easily.

One study, NASA faked the moon landing—Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science, gave evidence that climate change denial correlated with denial of the moon landing, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and endorsement of laissez-faire free markets: "This provides empirical confirmation of previous suggestions that conspiracist ideation contributes to the rejection of science. Acceptance of science, by contrast, was strongly associated with the perception of a consensus among scientists."

Another study titled Dead and Alive: Beliefs in Contradictory Conspiracy Theories managed to show that not only will conspiracy theorists be attracted to and believe in numerous conspiracy theories all at once, but will continue to do so even if the theories in question are completely and utterly incompatible with one another. For instance, the study showed that: "[…] the more participants believed that Princess Diana faked her own death, the more they believed that she was murdered [and that] …the more participants believed that Osama Bin Laden was already dead when U.S. special forces raided his compound in Pakistan, the more they believed he is still alive."

The study therefore appears to indicate that conspiracists do not notice (or care) about the logical discrepancies that arise from being attracted to several, mutually incompatible, conspiracy theories, just as long as the theories somehow contradict the "official" version of what happened. In the words of the authors of the paper: "Hierarchical regression models showed that mutually incompatible conspiracy theories are positively associated because both are associated with the view that the authorities are engaged in a cover-up".

To a rationalist, this indicates a fundamental flaw in the mindset of an average conspiracist, which makes them unable to notice incorrect and illogical thinking both in themselves and others. Instead, conspiracists appear to continually reject objective reality and be blind to the contradictions that arise from the doublethink in which they engage to uphold their own irrational worldview. The same also appears to be true for all their ongoing predictions which continually fail to come true.

Conspiracy theorists

Main article: Conspiracy theory

Why would a conspiracy theorist simultaneously believe in the JFK assassination conspiracies, the moon landing hoax, and anything claimed by the 9/11 truth movement? All of these conspiracies are united by a common thread: distrust of the "official" or "government endorsed" story. This can lead the believer to attach other conspiracies as well. Someone with a distrust of the government will likely reject any and all stories or reports directly issued by state agencies or other authorities that are seen as part of the establishment. Thus, any conspiracy will seem more plausible to the conspiracy theorist because this fits with their worldview.

Creationism

Main article: Creationism

Creationism, and activism to promote it in schools (like the "Teach the controversy" campaign), often goes hand-in-hand with right-wing ideas such as global warming denial. These two positions are mostly politically motivated, and holding them requires the active rejection of agreed upon facts. The links between global warming denial and creationism are less obvious than with conspiracy theories. However, both seem to hold the view that science is merely the opinion of one group (often assumed to be politically motivated) and can be safely ignored.

Creationism and global warming denial can also be linked with anti-government conspiracy theories. As the US government is officially secular under the Establishment Clause, the religious right are likely to hold anti-government sentiment.

Alternative medicine

Main article: Alternative medicine

The various views within alternative medicine are united mainly for being rejected by mainstream medicine. The theories may in fact completely contradict each other; yet practitioners and followers of one brand, such as homeopathy, will frequently find value in others, such as chiropractic and vitalism. They may consider themselves united against the common enemy of Big Pharma; vaccine hesitancy in particular is a symptom of this mindset.

In February 2010, the Skeptical Inquirer published an article, "The One True Cause of All Disease" by Harriet Hall, dealing with this phenomenon. In keeping with crank magnetism, believers in alternative medicine tend not to recognize contradictions between their practices, and rarely dispute one another's methodologies or claims (though there are exceptions).

MAGA communism

MAGA communism is a marxist–leninist ideology that tries to combine aspects of Fascism and Communism into one political project. MAGA communism has "little ideological consistency" and generally combines several conspiracy theories such as the existence of a "globalist" threat, the belief that the modern left-wing is a synthetic creation by the CIA and that the climate change movements are merely created to promote fascistic government control.

In Blackshirts and Reds, the political scientist Michael Parenti describes how fascist movements co-opt the symbols and language of socialism, building a “pseudo-revolution” that appeals to the working class without actually undoing existing power structures, like capitalism.

Vindication of all kooks doctrine

Anti-creationist blogger The Sensuous Curmudgeon coined the more unwieldy term "vindication of all kooks doctrine" to describe a similar phenomenon. The Curmudgeon described it as the idea that a unscientific dissenter in one field will view the perceived victory of a unscientific dissenter in another field against the "scientific establishment" as validating their own beliefs. He gave the example of the Discovery Institute latching onto the Climategate incident. Orac of Respectful Insolence saw fit to call it the "vindication of kooks" corollary to the law of crank magnetism.

Examples

• Heriticon, a convention of all who break with the scientific establishment to promote pseudo-scientific or conspiracy theories.
• QAnon, as a big-tent conspiracy movement, adherents have various crank beliefs which may even be incompatible with one another.
• The Mothman Prophecies, combines beliefs in UFOs, Men in Black, catastrophe clairvoyance, tulpas, and Mothman
• Anti-vaxxers, often believe several unscientific or conspiratorial beliefs surrounding GMOs, vaccines or anything else their child may be exposed to.
• COVID-19 conspiracies lend themselves well to combine fears of vaccines, 5G and 15-minute cities.
• Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories often combine multiple irrational beliefs into one Jewish conspiracy.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes in vaccine, 5G and fluoride conspiracy theories.

See also

• Project Blue Beam
• Horseshoe theory
• E. Calvin Beisner
• Roy Spencer
• QAnon

References

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