Play a sucker to catch a sucker — seem dumber than your mark: no one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The trick, then, is to make your victims feel smart — and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.
Book burning, burned at the stake, Communism, the Crusades, the Dark Ages, etc., the historical examples go on, but the theme is the same unfortunately. Alternative progressive ideas are frequently destroyed by the ignorant. The real tragedy is that our species intellectual progress is thrown backwards every time this occurs. A bright spot today is the Internet. For the first time in history, we have a method that takes information and places copies where ever we choose. We have the opportunity to protect knowledge in archives all over the planet increasing the likelihood that this knowledge will be preserved and available to more intellectuals. Perhaps now, intellectualism will be sustained beyond the grasp of ignorance.