Well that’s sensible enough, and I can only rebut it, not refute it. My counterargument is basically this:
1. At the speed at which technology is going forward, it seems entirely possible that the opinions of cranks will eventually drive real world actions of some sort, and so engaging with them ahead of those actions might be a good thing.
2. Without airing dirty laundry, it’s impossible to know how prevalent crank-ish ideas are in a community.
Well that’s sensible enough, and I can only rebut it, not refute it. My counterargument is basically this:
1. At the speed at which technology is going forward, it seems entirely possible that the opinions of cranks will eventually drive real world actions of some sort, and so engaging with them ahead of those actions might be a good thing.
2. Without airing dirty laundry, it’s impossible to know how prevalent crank-ish ideas are in a community.