Response to previous posts as a whole, and what to do about the misinformation

While reading over the posts over the last few days, I've noticed a particular problem. Some of the posts (including my almost all of my own) seem to be very fond of trashing the outlandish claims conspiracy theorists propose, and admittedly some are quite ridiculous. But I think it's very easy to put ourselves up on a pedestal and say "look those idiots, they're so stupid" and just think of him or her as some random person typing up an article while foaming like a rabid dog. I do recognize the hypocrisy of ranting about this on a blog. But rather than just foaming ourselves (and believe me, I want to just as much as the next person), I think we need to find more productive ways of expressing ourselves. I've seen this in many of the blogs as well, when people back their claims up with factual evidence in order to disprove strange theories.

I think that fundamentally, the primary reason people come up with strange conspiracy theories is because it's hard to access the factual information. For example: in the case of vaccines causing autism, information explaining the effects (or lack thereof) of thimerisol is accessible, but tends to be either too vague or too technical, there's very little in between. I think that the way to at least reduce the number of conspiracy theorists is to make the information more widely available through a variety of mediums. I don't watch cable TV very frequently, but when I do, I am depressed to find that shows such as Animal Planet and Discovery Channel are filling up with reality TV shows about people who own pit bulls and "ghost scientists" performing exorcisms in people's basements. You would think that with so many people getting on television these days (especially if it can include bubble heads from New Jersey), that at least one person has a good idea about how to go about invalidating conspiracy theories in and educational and entertaining way. Obviously there will always be the naysayers who hang onto a conspiracy theory with their fingernails, but at the very least, the correct information will be out there. If we do that, then I think we will have a more informed public and therefore can make better decisions regarding science, technology, and conspiracy.