LogFAQs > #974250830

Even stooping to debate a conspiracy theorist while you have actual expertise is granting them an automatic win, even if you dunk on them. Because the picture from the outside is that you are two equal and opposite sides, when you are not. There are only downsides, no upsides. If you "win", it was expected, may be seen as bullying, and won't be acknowledged. If you mess up against multiple media trained people that control the conversation, then it's an embarrassing catastrophe that certain types will use to discredit the entire concept of expertise.

Grifters take advantage of nave but earnest people's belief in the power of debate. They don't care about debate, or the exchange of ideas, they just want to spout BS to a gullible audience that believes that listening to BS makes them enlightened somehow. They manipulate people's childish ideas about how minds are actually changed and info is transmitted.