NEO-OBSCURANTISM UNMASKED

Ridiculing

Ridiculing is a very powerful way to prevent rational debate around a certain subject, first because it triggers an immediate instinctive reaction, second because even after cooldown it prevents people from siding with its target due to the implied threat becoming targets themselves.
When a certain idea is becoming too threatening for the status quo, it can be effectively neutralized by turning it into a laughing matter. Virtually any possible subject, no matter how serious, can be easily turned into a laughstock by very simple tricks. Some of these tricks involve misrepresenting the subject itelf, for example: deforming/extremizing certain aspects of it; comparing it to other subjects through false analogies; addressing it by using a language specifically designed to evoke ridicule, or even inventing new terms for that purpose; using memes. Some other tricks involve ridiculing the subjects' proponents, like: using stereotypical/caricatural representations, sometimes even on a mere aesthetical level; making them say or do (in the made-up representations) something crazy or funny, or even just in a deranged way; contrasting them agaisnt the alleged common sense of "normal" people.