Laypeople trump experts

We're talking about what you described just a few hours ago as "the oft-made claim I quoted in my OP":
“history is not lacking in examples of experts being proven wildly wrong, oftentimes by lay people...”

I would just say that, in Internet discussions, when people tell a really obvious lie - I mean a lie that might fool the most casual readers, but whose untruth is evident to anyone who is following the discussion with any real degree of attention - then that shows complete cynicism and contempt for all the people concerned. (I think it can be argued that the contempt extends even to themselves.)

Perhaps I should be more tolerant in the "post-truth", "anything goes" environment that seems to prevail today. But I don't think I'll ever be able to reconcile myself to out-and-out liars. I dislike them intensely.