for advancing ideas. It hinders."

That's it, precisely. If we have to keep re-inventing the wheel, two steps forward, one-and-a-half steps back, no progress can be made in any discussion.

It's like trying to have an adult discussion about advisable policy interrupted by people who want to waste our time debating whether Obama is really a citizen, or whether WMD's were really found in Iraq.

The science is settled on climate change. There is no point in debating that point, but only in discussing what to do about it.