Glen writes:

< [⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on 
the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's 
easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying 
that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in 
chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working 
on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t 
microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily 
spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum. >

After seeing a few distinguished academics get spun up about peer review 
pissing matches which do not move the world one iota does lead me to believe 
this is a useful dimension.   Such people benefit from having a circumscribed 
world to function in, and when that scaffolding is not available, they just 
lose it.   There's something to be for knowing when your bandwidth and 
knowledge is running out, and the bad things that can happen when it does.

Marcus
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