On 12/12/06, Guy Chapman aka JzG guy.chapman@spamcop.net wrote:
On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:29:18 +1030, "Alphax (Wikipedia email)" alphasigmax@gmail.com wrote:
Why? Dismissing it outright is what any rational human being does.
NPOV says otherwise.
Not so. We can document it, in terms which make it abundantly clear that *this is simply not true* even though some people are determined to believe it. NPOV would not, of course, allow the mad theory to creep into the main article.
Guy, I hope it's obvious that I respect you quite a lot, but as much as I agree with you that the ideas the conspiracists put forth are intellectual garbage, I really very badly think that this attitude ultimately encourages them and (much worse) public perceptions of them.
We can't make the lunacy go away; if we really want to minimize the encouragement we give them, let the light of neutral open review of their ideas expose them as garbage. People are much less likely to believe conspiracy theories when the whole situation is laid dispassionately out for them to see what kooks the kooks are. Anything else ends up encouraging them.