Are You a Crackpot? Take the Quiz!

U.S. President John Adams once declared: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our
wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”  Similarly Thomas Henry Huxley, biologist and defender of Charles Darwin, stated that: “The great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”
At one time we declared as crackpots people who denied facts and reality.  But if only Adams and Huxley lived now in a world of alternative facts and reality it might be they who are declared crackpots for believing in truth and facts.  Yet for those of us who still naively and perhaps foolishly believe that facts exist, science produces knowledge, and that there are ways to ascertain truth, contemporary politics is challenging.  While crackpot claims and conspiracy theories are as old as human nature, crackpots seem everywhere, lurking behind every posting on the social media, stories in the news, and even press statements from the White House. Crackpotism does not discriminate, it seems to know no political, racial, ethnic, religious, or other bounds.
All of us want to think we are in the right and that others are wrong, but is it possible that you too are a crackpot?  Ths crackpot quiz or index measures the degree to which you are a rigorous tough-minded truth seeker all the way up to being a certified five-star crackpot, ready to run for political office, host a social media site, or leader a group of similarly-minded folks.  The quiz includes classic as well a contemporary questions.
Good luck!

1. The Earth is flat.  True or false.

2. Fluoridation of water was and is bad for you.  True or false.

3. God created the Earth on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC at 9 a.m. True or false.

4. Vaccinations have been proven to cause autism. True or false.

5. Humans did not evolve from another species because evolution as a theory is wrong.  True or false.

6. Global warming is a hoax cooked up by those who hate coal and the fossil-fuel industry.  True or false.

7. You stocked up your basement with food and provisions in anticipation of Y2K. True or false.

8. Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in Dallas. True or false.

9. Elvis is alive. True or false.

10. You think that any politician or political party that you disagree with is the Anti-Christ.  True or false.

11. You believe in the Anti-Christ.  True or false.

12. You are the Anti-Christ.  True or false.

13. You believe everything as true what you or your friends read or post on the social media.  True or false.

14. You repost things on the social media before either verifying the source and accuracy of the story, or without reading it first.    True or false.

15. Former President Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen and his Hawaiian birth certificate is fabricated.  True or false.

16. The U.S. government is concealing information about a UFO crash landing of aliens at Area 51 in New Mexico.  True or false.

17. Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. True or false.

18. The Holocaust occurred.  True or false.

19. Crrypto-Zoology is a legitimate science. True or false.

20. All terrorists are Muslims. True or false.

21. All Muslims are terrorists.  True or false.

22. The only good immigrants are your ancestors.  True or false.

23. Donald Trump won the presidency with one of the largest Electoral College victories in US history.  True or false.

24. Al Gore invented the Internet.

25. Life begins at:
a) Conception
b) Birth
c) When you get your driver’s license.
d) None of the above
e) All of the above

Answers (If you believe in facts and truth, if not go on to the score section).
1 F. 2 F. 3 F.4 F. 5 F. 6 F. 7 F. 8. T.  9. F. 10.  F. 11. F.
12.  F.  13. F. 14. F.  15. F. 16. F. 17. T.  18 T. 19 F. 20 F. 21. F
22. F.  23. F. 24. F. 25. E.

Score:
If you even took the test raises questions about whether you have insecurities about being a crackpot, or conversely, you actually believe in truth and facts.  Nonetheless:

If you got 23-25 correct you are a tough-minded truth seeker, not fit for politics or working as a pundit in the national media.

If you got 20-22 correct you generally believe in facts and truth but you could be convinced to buy a deed to the Brooklyn Bridge.

If you got 17-19 correct truth and facts are challenges for you and you could either become a university professor espousing epistemological relativism or addicted to Sunday morning talk shows or tele-evangelicals.

If you got 14-16 correct truth and facts are matters of opinion and you believe that black helicopters are ready to land at any minute.

If you got 13 or less correct truth and facts are only what you believe and congratulations, you are  certified five-star crackpot.

The Death of Thoughtfulness in Politics and Journalism

Whatever happened to thoughtfulness?  No, the reference is not “thoughtful” as in considerate toward others (although that it is an issue and a topic for a different essay), but thoughtful in the sense of thinking through issues, being mindful of subtle distinctions, considering opposing viewpoints, making truthful statements that are faithful to the facts, and eschewing dogmatic one-sided arguments?  Such thoughtfulness seems all but to have disappeared in politics, journalism, and among those making political arguments, especially in the social media.
Politics 2016 seems to be the year where all pretense of being thoughtful and truthful have been dropped.  Truth tests after the Republican debates, for example, find that Trump and Cruz consistently fail or rate as “liar, liar, pants on fire” when it comes to statements about immigration or their own records or positions.  We see other candidates in both parties outside of the debates distorting the records of both themselves and other candidates, and of course the SuperPacs and political ads they run simply lie.  The Courts have said there is a First Amendment right to lies, letting the political marketplace and voters decide truth. This marketplace of ideas has failed and with so many so skeptical about what candidates    Say is untrue none are believed.
But even if it is not outright lies it is making bold simplistic statements or policy proposals that just are not possible because either the empirical evidence suggests they will not work or they are not based on theories grounded in reality.  Yes there is a distinction between visions and hopes about the world one wants versus policy statements, but too often what one sees are one-sided statements that fail to consider objections or points from opposing view points.  Political rhetoric  is simply dogma and marketing hype, not serious policy discourse.
The death of thoughtfulness is evident too in the commercial media.  Tune into any talk show on Sunday morning–even ones with those speakers from different perspectives–and there is no thoughtfulness. Each speaker drools out a predictable point of view that is dogmatic and unreflective.  It bears no witness to opposing views, no subtlety.  The journalists on these shows are no better.  In fact, part of the problem with so much of commercial journalism is that it has given up on the idea of finding the truth–just report opposite partisan positions and call that news gathering.
The world is not black and white but it  is lived in shades of gray.  Solutions to America’s or world problems are not as simple as just send in the marines, cut taxes, or carpet bomb.  There are no silver bullets to fix the economy, bring about world peace, or eliminate poverty.  We live in a complex world with complex problems and understanding both and possible solutions require thoughtfulness about recognizing the limits of any one idea or policy proposal.
Yet simple-minded dogmatism is what sells.  Recently I attended a conference  of student college journals.  One of the speakers was a representative from a major media news service.  When one of the students asked how they could get more media attention for their journal the response from the news service was simple: Take a point of view and press it no matter what, even if extreme.  The advice was that to be successful you had to have a simple  clear perspective and argue it to the extreme.  It was not about being thoughtful or making clear careful distinctions–just take a position and advocate it, facts be damned.
Social media is perfect in terms of lacking thoughtfulness.  Partisans should advocate for their candidate, but seriously, not everything Sanders does is bad or what Clinton does is good or vice versa.  The same can be said about the Republicans.  None of these candidates are perfect or have the answers to everything.  Moreover, not every rumor need be reported and not everything a candidate does–or fails to do–is a cause for faux outrage. Social media is terrific for doing this, and for passing along half truths and claims that most people know or should know are just not accurate.  What social media has done is undermine its own credibility–when it is no longer possible for people to sort out the true from the false everything is doubted and nothing is believed.  This is what happened to mainstream commercial journalism and thereby destroyed its believe-ability.   The same is happening to the social media, thereby rendering its utility as a campaign or information gathering tool nil.
Finally, my political science profession is no better when it comes to a lot of analysis.  Rewards go to those who have singular methods and theories to look at the world, again rejecting the idea that how we study something is dictated by what we are studying.  Yes good theories should be simple, but they should also be accurate.
Thoughtfulness is out of fashion.  Thoughtfulness is not saying one needs to be a political  moderate or wishy-washy.  There are loony tune leftists and wingnut conservatives, but there are also those on all sides of the political spectrum who can be thoughtful and recognize the limits of their arguments or and reflect on what they and others are saying.  Unfortunately, thoughtfulness seems  unfashionable and certainly it does not seem to sell anymore.