There wouldn't be a point to reading papers/textbooks, buying equipment from others, etc., if you thought that it was all part of some elaborate deception. The

There wouldn't be a point to reading papers/textbooks, buying equipment from others, etc., if you thought that it was all part of some elaborate deception. The general presumption would tend to be that other scientists are trying to do good, honest work. Scientific progress does better when that presumption turns out to be more true. To be clear, I was responding to their apparent disregard for the harm done by the original alleged-fraud.