The past week and a half has seen two stories in the news involving the idea of conspiracy theories and how to disprove them. Last week it was the Obama birth certificate story, and this week it’s been the death of Osama bin Laden. There have always been conspiracy theories in American history, but I can’t remember a time when the proponents of these theories have garnered so much undeserved respect.

There were many news commentators in the last couple of days who were saying that the White House should release Osama bin Laden’s death photos because there are lots of people out there who don’t believe he’s dead and putting the photos out there would prove it. The other day, CIA Director Leon Panetta said the photos should be released, because “the bottom line is that, you know, we got Bin Laden and I think we have to reveal to the rest of the world the fact that we were able to get him and kill him.” And yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham said this:

The whole purpose of sending our soldiers into the compound, rather than an aerial bombardment, was to obtain indisputable proof of Bin Laden’s death. I know Bin Laden is dead. But the best way to protect and defend our interests overseas is to prove that fact to the rest of the world.

I’m afraid the decision made today by President Obama will unnecessarily prolong this debate.

Why do people pay so much attention to conspiracy theorists these days?

There are a few possible reasons: (1) the internet; (2) the changing relationship between the government and the public, and the idea that the government must satisfy the public’s every whim; (3) the lurid desire of people in the media to see the actual photos because it will make good copy.

The internet gives conspiracy theorists a much larger platform than they used to have. And political journalists and commentators spend particularly large amounts of time online these days, so they’re exposed to the tumult of political discussion to a much greater degree than journalists used to be. They read blogs, they read the same websites as everyone else, they’re on Twitter. So this stuff is much closer to the front of their minds than it is to other people.

But look. Obama released his long-form birth certificate last week and there are still denialists out there. How about the moon landing? It was filmed, it aired on live television, and yet there are people who deny it happened. There are people who deny the reality of historical events such as the Holocaust. Why do we think the releasing of bin Laden’s death photos will satisfy anyone? There are already fake photoshopped photos of his corpse online; why would denialists believe the real photos are real?

This needs to stop. People who believe in conspiracy theories aren’t interested in discovering the truth; they’re interested in pushing a particular belief system. And their ideas are infectious, because people who don’t know the facts can be easily swayed by zealous deniers.

Obama made the right decision in not releasing the death photos. Perhaps the release of his long-form birth certificate last week played a part in his thinking; he saw that it didn’t placate the true denialists. Neither would release of the photos. All they would do is inflame people.

You can never argue with a conspiracy theorist. You’ll always lose.