#1156: Craig Smith

Craig Smith is an absolutely magnificently dense columnist for … well, for the WND, so you wouldn’t really set expectations too high when it comes to accuracy, reason and accountability. Indeed Smith is a long-time associate of none other than Jerome Corsi, and was for instance Corsi’s coauthor on Black Gold Stranglehold, one of the most insanely cranky books of pseudoscience ever to appear. The main tenet of the book was … abiotic oil – the idea that oil is not a fossil fuel but a renewable resource, and that the liberals are in a conspiracy to hide this information from the public. Neither Corsi nor Craig has any even remotely relevant expertise in any remotely related field, by the way, but lack of expertise, insight, knowledge or understanding has never been an obstacle for a delusional wingnut crackpot.

Otherwise his columns are of the kind you fear and expect. You can for instane try to find some sense of insight in his expression of shock at the atrocity that US is not enforcing prayer in public schools anymore, but you certainly won’t succee. But then, Smith has demonstrably not the faintest idea how government, or the separation of powers, actually works. And he wasn’t done. If this isn’t one of the stupidest screeds you will ever read, you must have found a well of lunacy I am not aware of.

And evolution? Evolution, according to Smith, leads to the collapse of society.

Standard fare for Smith. Indeed, Smith claims that the goal of “secular progressives” is to eliminate Christianity and Judaism from the US and turn it into a godless society – a standard wingnut delusion, of course, but Smith is determined to win this one, so he claims that the reason secular progressives are doing this is to appease the terrorists. That’s the goal of secularism. Apparently it will succeed because there is nothing radical Muslims like better than secular progressives. He even has evidence. Apparently he has received a copy of a “secret plan” from George Soros (the right’s current boogey man du jour), John Kerry, Michael Moore and Howard Dean. It is a bit unclear whether he means that literally, but after his abysmal abiotic oil affair I’d say it’s a fair chance he does.

Diagnosis: Even for a raving wingnut lunatic Smith is in a class of his own. May he continue to make a fool of himself for a long time: His negative influence is probably negligible – people who listen to him are unlikely to be responsive to reality anyways – but he’s got to scare away at least some people initially attracted to wingnuttery.