These cranks have been around for a while:
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"We were just discussing a most interesting subject," said the earnest matron. "Dr. Pritchett was telling us that nothing is anything."
"He should, undoubtedly, know more than anyone else about that," Francisco answered gravely.
"I wouldn't have supposed that you knew Dr. Pritchett so well, Senor d'Anconia," she said, and wondered why the professor looked displeased by her remark.
"I am an alumnus of the great school that employs Dr. Pritchett at present, the Patrick Henry University. But I studied under one of his predecessors - Hugh Akston."
...
A young man said, astonished, "I thought Hugh Akston was one of those classics that nobody studied any more, except in histories of philosophy. I read an article recently which referred to him as the last of the great advocates of reason."
"Just what did Hugh Akston teach?" asked the earnest matron.
Francisco answered, "He taught that everything is something."
-- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
When I was a freshman in college many years ago before going off to WWII and across the Pacific I had an assignment in a Psychology elective class to write a ‘free’ expression paper. I chose as my subject ‘Why Nothing is Something’. My paper rambled on for a couple of pages with double speaks. The lady prof. told me, as I recall, that my paper was interesting but it made no sense and besides my construction was poor. She did give me a ‘B’ for the paper. Today I still believe that with many things people make nothing into something.