Crazy doesn't help in the long run and often isn't helpful even in the short run. People exhibit something like an immune reaction to crazy ideas, and develop a

Crazy doesn't help in the long run and often isn't helpful even in the short run. People exhibit something like an immune reaction to crazy ideas, and develop an allergy to the stimulus. Marxism has scared people away from social policy. Andrea Dworkin types have scared people away from feminism. (When I left liberal Oakland to go to U Chicago for college, I was shocked to hear people say, "I support equal rights but I'm not a feminist...") The civil rights movement and the early neocon movement are two examples of movements that suppressed crazy elements, and were highly successful for it.