This is a very fair question I've gotten a lot this month, so I guess it's worth answering.

(And I'm speaking for myself here, but I'm sure others will chime in.) https://twitter.com/moshik_temkin/status/1026351003375939584

First and foremost, if you think this is an effort to get D'Souza or his loyal followers to admit that they're actually mistaken, I'm afraid you've misunderstood what's going on here.

Believe it or not, I do recognize he's arguing in bad faith and running a con.

These corrections aren't aimed at him or any of his followers.

They're aimed at normal people who don't have the actual facts at hand and have to encounter this nonsense from friends or family members in the real world and, of course, random partisans here on the internet.

Historians have avoided dealing with him because *we* all know he's a con man and *we* all know his arguments are ludicrous, so we've said, why bother?

But our lack of pushback was taken, by him and others, as tacit support. His feed used to be filled with tweets like these:

I understand the arguments against, but personally I feel we have a duty to engage with this hackish history, as much as scientists have a duty to push back on climate change deniers and doctors have a duty to push back on the anti-vaxxers.

Because if we don't do it, who will?

And no, my engaging with him on Twitter isn't boosting his movie's sales.

He's promoted this movie across Fox News, conservative talk radio and right-wing websites. He's got ten times the Twitter following I do, even more than others who've engaged him. We're not making a dent.

I'm not going to suggest any causality here, but as the opening of this film has apparently been the weakest opening he's ever had, I'm not sure there's much to the argument that we're boosting his ticket sales. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-why-dinesh-dsouzas-death-a-nation-didnt-get-a-trump-bump-1132318

Again, I understand not everyone agrees with me on this, and that it might remind folks of the classic comic here.

And yes, a lot of times it feels like mopping back the ocean.

But in the end, I'd rather push back with the truth than let the lie stand. As I see it, that's a basic part of our job description.