> Properly analyzing an idea takes time away from other things you could be doing, and some ideas are so outlandish that your life will almost certainly be bett

> Properly analyzing an idea takes time away from other things you could be doing, and some ideas are so outlandish that your life will almost certainly be better by simply making the choice to spend as little time as possible flirting with such absurdities (except insofar as you might enjoy toying with "what-if" questions as an end unto itself). There's also the claim that someone is being "close-minded", when they reject an idea they have soundly researched and therefore need not waste any more time on. As Harlan Ellison so eloquently put it: "I'd gotten all the literature I could handle on the subject from a certain Thomas Aquinas" in regards to the god hypothesis. More often than not, "close-minded" is a conversation stopper, designed to deflect from the accuser's very own ignorance and credulity. Same thing goes for creationism, AGW denial, anti-vaxx, anti-mask, the QAnon cult, trickle-down economics, etc.