"Crackpot" has been leveled as an epithet against just about every major thinker. Had the epithet existed then, Galileo surely would have qualified even by the most conservative use of the term.
I regard the term as indicating that somebody is going very far afield of established thinking. 99.9% of all crackpots will be wrong. But it may be worth listening to them anyways.
Had the epithet existed then, Galileo surely would have qualified even by the most conservative use of the term.
I guess Galileo had read and understood Aristotle, he just disagreed with him. Conversely, the cranks who infest Usenet and similar places usually have at most a very vague idea of what Einstein said. So I don't think the two are analogous. (See also)
Today's post, Tolerate Tolerance was originally published on 21 March 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
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