Giving them a voice is inevitable, and beating them isn't hard. Just provide point-by-point rebuttals and refer students to them. At some point, after checkin

Giving them a voice is inevitable, and beating them isn't hard. Just provide point-by-point rebuttals and refer students to them. At some point, after checking five or six stories, the doubter will realize the deniers are either intellectually dishonest or eager to remain ignorant. The real damage is when someone hears two or three provocative ideas from deniers and never learns anything more. Especially if people refuse to engage with them. I put in my dues exchanging emails (over a period of months) about biology with a white supremacist. He was a very bright guy just starting a law career, and he didn't reveal his ideas to many people. I think he was impressed that I was able to provide point-by-point responses to the claims he made about human evolution. He was very well read in racist literature, especially the older stuff from a time when more sophisticated people were still openly taking the position that non-white races were biologically inferior. He was under the impression that a lot of the points from those old books were still unaddressed by "mainstream" biology, and the fact that I was able to provide him with straightforward answers and pointers to further reading discredited a lot of his current sources. I don't think I cured him of his racism, but I did convince him that biologists weren't as stupid or brainwashed as he thought they were, and that his sources of information did not stand up to modern ideas, because they were obsolete in some cases and simply ignorant in others. His tendency to believe in the superiority of white people remained, but I destroyed his belief that the issue had already been scientifically settled and was being ignored or suppressed by current biologists. Addressing the issues honestly is the only way to make progress. It's sad that much of what is written about untouchable political issues is written to gratify people who are eager to agree with the author and just need some authoritative reassurance. "The Mismeasure of Man" is an egregious example. If it included white supremacists (or just people who learned towards believing in racial inequality) in its target audience, if it addressed itself to those people with an intent to persuade them, it would have been a lot more useful. Of course, it would not have won accolades -- it would have creeped people out, because people do not want to see those ideas taken seriously. What they want, and what "The Mismeasure of Man" gave them, is reassurance that those ideas have been conclusively dealt with and can be ignored. But that doesn't actually accomplish anything except providing some peace of mind to non-racists. The goal should have been to shift the ideas of people who are racist.