The aftermath post 2008, once the US govt banned anonymous netizens from engaging in heated or sensitive arguments online has played out very much like I'd expected. (With the ban, a lot of discussions corners had to albeit slowly close / fold over a couple of years due to TOS issues the hosting sites inevitably encountered.) Blow Hards have since had a free reign to yap whatever nonsense they please and few people (using their own name) are going to really drill home how wrong or poorly informed someone actually is - some poorly informed might take it as a chance to learn new facts, but more often the popular platforms encourage narcissism and other behaviours befitting personality disorders, as such few have the grit to admit they might have the wrong end of the stick. In tricky hot areas, any one of the <i>true believers</i> might take it into their head to organise something not so good in real life for those who are being a thorn to their beliefs, since they have a valid person's name - so only someone truly courageous or naive is going to persist some days or weeks to post links and do their best to educate or illuminate why certain poorly formed ideas don't pass the pub test.<p>Having the govt or a third party step in doesn't really work either, yes it stops some things being echoed, but for a percentage of conspiracy minded folks, it just reinforces the idea that whatever was stated or something they already believe in, is actively being covered up.<p>Ultimately it's best to have the bulk of the general population well educated, esp science ... scientific methods - critical thinking - with some grounding in psychology; even if majority might not utilise much or any of it for their job. However it's hard to undo 30 or 40 years of dumbing down the general population. (I can't really speak for the rest of the world, but IMO that's the situation in Australia (things like setting goal posts lower, replacing all the hard science or technical books with <i>fluffy</i> light versions in local libraries - but perhaps that's explained by a move to meet the lower reading comprehension levels that seem to persist now ... and it seems to be a mystery to some here why certain local jobs can no longer be filled by someone born and educated in Australia.)