Let's not be coy. Laypeople don't have a compelling reason or the expertise necessary to dispute or vociferously defend any scientific conclusions, at the end of the day, there is no science involved here, it's all about politics. Whichever side of the debate you come down on with regard to climate change, vaccines, evolution, the shape of the earth etc, the people in these debates don't really care about science, they only care about policy.