In a few years the other political party will be elected and make decisions on your behalf. Will you be as keen on their mission to fight misinformation from this perspective of "people are sheep"?
I'm personally delighted whenever "the general public" is interested in participating in my field of expertise. I love describing how we scientifically approach the unknown with models and attempts at falsification. And how we make engineering decisions and for what reasons. You've never talked with non-technical people about browser standards and programming language design? If you can't present good counterpoints to uninformed statements then you don't understand your own field.
I've talked to non-technical people about technical subjects, to some success. But presenting good counterpoints to people who have no intention of playing the game honestly is wasting your breath.
Children also do not need to be wearing masks at school or social distancing in the cafeteria. We are harming our children by robbing them of a proper education and the experiences of childhood. And yet good luck trying to convince a covid alarmist of any of this.
They took the vaccine, so must everyone else, science be damned, seems to be their logic.
Some even post their vaccination cards, as if it’s some kind of scientific evidence. Absolutely crazy.
There also comes a point when you have explained something well enough, and then people are just deliberately “asking questions” not because they are being honest, but because there is an agenda. I see that attitude on HN all the time. It’s disguising honest enquiry.
And then there are people that will just ignore what you have done and still want to put their 2bits in.