The definition of a “nut” as I have found it….in this society…is given as a moniker to any view that somehow does not fit into the parameters of the accepted norm or vision of the person or society to which the information is being given. Anything that a person cannot accept in their limited vision is labeled “nutters”.
So, if Ron Paul says, “no more wars, we are spending too much money on the war machine and we need that money spent at home” he is labeled a nut. If someone says we “never went to the moon”, they are a nut. If a man named Galileo says that the earth revolves around the sun, he is a nut. If someone says to “invest in gold while it is $200 an ounce because the economy will take a downturn in 2011” ...well, that’s a nut telling you that, isn’t it? Everyone knows that gold will never…oh wait…it’s expected to hit $2000 an ounce? What?
Sometimes, the “nuts” are just people that the future has not caught up with yet…a nut is often a visionary or perhaps someone who draws the curtain to simply find out that “there is a man behind there, not the magnificent Oz” as we have been told.
It takes some skill to figure out who “really is out to lunch” and who is simply seeing something that the rest of the world has yet to see and/or discover.
(This explanation is not for people who are genuinely mentally ill, though a whole segment of the population would call the above exactly that.)