1. There's a broad space between "because it's fashionable" and "because they followed through all the relevant citations". It seems to me that "the smart lads"

1. There's a broad space between "because it's fashionable" and "because they followed through all the relevant citations". It seems to me that "the smart lads", if you mean anything sensible by that, occupy a point of that space that's somewhere near "because they looked to see what people who show genuine signs of expertise tend to think". Which, given that science is a field in which expertise is actually possible and somewhat assessable, seems to me quite different from "because it's fashionable". 2. The full title of the "Origin of Species"? What, you mean the fact that (gasp) it has the words "favoured races" in it? Well, I suppose that someone who doesn't have any clue what Darwin meant by that might be worried that it's talking about human "races", but ignorance and stupidity are always with us.