What is a “fringe” topic?

I’ve noticed that some people have referred to some of the topics
in the forum as being “fringe” topics.

Why?

What makes the paranormal, conspiracy theories, or alternate
spiritual and religious beliefs and ideas “fringe” topics?
Because they don’t follow the “established” ideas? Or maybe
because they make you have to pull your head out of the sand
and consider the possibility that what you were taught as a
child might not be all there is?

It has been my observation that many people falsely assume that
expressing an interest in such things means you must be, by
default, some wacko that wears a tin foil hat and believes that
“they” are watching your every move.

No.

Many people that are interested in “fringe” topics are actually
quite normal. Some would even say bloody boring in their day to
day lives. The part of it that amuses me is that as soon as
some people find out you are interested in such things they
think they need to distance themselves from you or shun you for
fear that they will be seen as “tainted” in the eyes of others.
Or worse, they treat like you are some sub-human creature that
somehow managed to escape a lunatic asylum and need to be treated
like you were somehow ill.

Then there are the ones that use the term “lunatic fringe”. What
makes one person a lunatic and another one normal? Politically
speaking, many consider me to be a lunatic because I think our
current government(s) don’t have our best interests in heart. Nor
do I believe this is how the original founders of the various
governments intended for things to be for posterity.

Looking at my traffic reports has shown me something interesting
about this site, the so called “fringe” topics are of greater
interest than the supposed “normal” topics. And believe me, there
are more “normal” topics here than there are “fringe” topics.

One prime example is the topic Pagnor posted about Odinism,
Asatru, and Heathen. I see many visitors looking at that one so
it makes me have to ask the question, If there are that many
people regularly looking for such topics online, how can they be
considered “fringe”? In fact I just looked, that one topic has
had 484 views since he posted it in January.

Link to Pagnor’s thread

So the next time you see something referred to as a “fringe”
topic, ask yourself, What makes this a “fringe” topic? Because
Katie Couric isn’t blathering about bigfoot on the evening news?
Or they aren’t offering you tips on the Today Show on best way to
set up a cleansing ritual for your house before your new baby is
born? Oh wait, they do that if it is Feng Shui.