Crank (person)

"Crank" (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 in science, but is alleged to have false or even ludicrous beliefs. Crank can also be used to describe the opinions of these people (see American Heritage Dictionary 2000 - noun definition 3). Usage of the label is often subjective, with proponents of competing theories labeling their opponents cranks, but the term still connotes someone who is well out of mainstream opinion on a matter, as well as connoting a person of dubious mental stability.

Politics, economics, and law

• some conspiracy theories
• currency crankism
• Federal Reserve conspiracies
• social credit
• tax protesters
• Holocaust denial
• supporters of Lyndon LaRouche
• Spectral evidence in which legal testimony based on apparitions and dreams are considered admissible in a court of law