Rudeness is the underlying problem because nobody will ever believe you if you're horrible to them. I understand your role as moderator, and I understand conspiracy theories run deep on this site. But I also understand no person was ever convinced of the other side after said other side repeatedly insulted them. You'll only drive people further. Hence, if people are rude to you, you either ignore them or respond eith kindness. It's far easier to ignore than to respond hatefully, and it's far more constructive for all involved to respond respectfully. So please, if you're only interested in mudslinging, just ignore these comments, because to them, you'll just be the exact reason their theories are true. You want to secure this stream's borders against anti-intellectualism, but the only real way to stop it is to sit down and talk with the anti intellectuals. So I guess it's your choice -- you can ignore the problem, just keep it out of the stream, or you can at least play some small part in combatting it. Similarly, comments under my posts are out of your way. I understand it's still your stream, and you'd prefer to keep the comments non conspiratorial, but the fact is that on a post asking about conspiracy theories, I expect and even hope for people who believe them to talk, because I'd like to talk with them, as peers, respectfully. So I don't know if that's an option for you, whether that violates your rules or something, but I believe, no matter how stupid someone's idea is, it's still worth hearing them out, because you can still learn a lot about them, but maybe that's the Historian inside me speaking
Now I'm sorry if you found me rude, I'm obviously not perfect, but I like to think every day I get better.