Oh, and my experience is that arguing with wedrifid is futile, just to warn you.

I don't have any cached assessment of personal experience with arguing with shminux. In my evaluation of how his arguments with other people play out I have concluded that people can often mitigate some of the epistemic damage shminux does while trying to advocate his agenda. It is barely worth even considering that the reason to refute the specific positions shminux takes is anything to do with attempting to change shminux's mind or directly influence his behavior - that would indeed be futile.