90% Crackpot Still Means You’re a Crackpot

A while back, I wrote a post on Notes and on Facebook about the "Food Babe" — you know, that self-proclaimed food activist who sounds real convincing right up until she starts warning you about the dangers of eating anything you can't pronounce, like oxygen. I pointed out that while she occasionally trips over a good point (yes, processed food is a nightmare), most of what she peddles is pure, Grade-A, organic-certified bullshit. And it got me thinking: this isn’t just a Food Babe problem. It’s a full-blown epidemic. People think if they have one good idea, it gives them a hall pass for every cracked-out conspiracy theory they cling to.

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

You ever notice how some people have one — one — good point tucked away like a gold coin in their little goblin brain, and they think it somehow makes up for the nine crackpot ideas they keep belching out into the world?

Let me spell this out real simple:

If you have 1 good idea and 9 lunatic ones, you're still 90% full of shit.
You’re not a "truth teller." You’re not a "free thinker." You're a crackpot with a halfway decent batting average in a game no one’s watching.

And here’s the kicker: the one good idea you do have? It’s tainted by association.
It’s buried under so much radioactive bullshit that nobody's willing to dig it out and polish it off. They just toss the whole thing onto the pile labeled “not worth listening to.”

Let’s take a classic example:

You say processed food is wrecking our health? Hell yes. I’m with you. We’ve been gaslit by the food industry for decades, and it's one of the biggest reasons why half the country can't walk up a flight of stairs without wheezing like a Victorian widow.

But. If five minutes later you’re standing on the same corner yelling about how vaccines cause autism, microwaves are melting your sperm, and the government is installing 5G mind control devices in pigeons — congratulations, you just set your credibility on fire and pissed on the ashes.

Nobody’s gonna say, "Hey, you know what, maybe I should listen to his point about Kraft Singles." They're gonna say, "Oh look, another moon-howling nutcase who thinks the Earth is hollow and the Queen of England is a shapeshifter."

That’s how this shit works.

Once you break the trust, once you show people your mental junk drawer is overflowing with conspiracy coupons and expired logic, they stop sorting through it.

You could have stumbled across the cure for cancer in there, but no one’s gonna take it seriously because it’s crammed next to your theories about how COVID was spread by Bill Gates sneezing on a bat.

And you know who loves this?

Big Food. Big Pharma. Big Whoever.

Because now, anytime someone raises an actually valid concern, it’s easy to dismiss them as "one of those crazies."

"Oh, you don’t trust processed foods? What’s next, you think the moon landing was faked?"

This is how good ideas get killed. Not by debate. Not by evidence. But by the company they keep.

So let’s get something clear:

If you want people to listen when you’ve got something real to say, you have to protect that shit like it’s your last brain cell. You don’t bundle it up with every loose, quacking thought that flies into your head at 3am after one too many episodes of Ancient Aliens. You don't season your legitimate point with a heavy-handed sprinkle of paranoia and call it a "bold stance."

You pick your battles. You pick your facts. And you make damn sure the things you're saying out loud are things you’re willing to stand behind when the lights come on.

Because if you’re 90% crackpot, you’re still a crackpot. And that 10%? It’s wasted.

No one’s giving you a trophy for "having a point once."

They’re giving you a wide berth and muttering, "Don’t make eye contact" when you walk by.

And honestly? At this point, if you don't know the difference between a good idea and a deranged fever dream, you deserve to be ignored. Go join the other tinfoil generals in the comments section of a YouTube video about Atlantis. The adults are busy trying to fix the real problems you’re too busy hallucinating about.