Actually the critics <i>should</i> be dismissed as soon as they criticize scientific findings without demonstrating their knowledge and valid and effective use of the scientific method.<p>Somebody&#x27;s ignorance of the background of some scientific claims is absolutely not an excuse to accept to even spend the energy considering his claims of &quot;wrongness.&quot; The only thing we should consider is how we can educate as much people as we can, but we certainly should not treat them as having any contribution to the understanding of the topic.<p>An example for a case study:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=8athT6tfRIg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=8athT6tfRIg</a><p>&quot;Horizon Zoom Boom Earth Flat&quot;<p>The modern concept of &quot;journalistic balance&quot; (in reality, trying to win the eyeballs by creating &quot;conflict&quot;) by representing 99% percent of all world scientists with one person and some group with silly claims with another person and giving these two then the same air time or coverage space is exactly one of the things that produce this effect:<p>&quot;The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.&quot;<p>Also never ignore the &quot;accidental&quot; fact when the &quot;silly&quot; group represents the interests of the people with immense amount of wealth and&#x2F;or power, or potential financial or power gain in maintaining the &quot;controversy.&quot; That&#x27;s where the events really get nasty.