History is replete with stories of genius betrayed by backward thought and jealously, but most pathetically, by greed and money.
Forward momentum in humanity is always disrupted by these lame and pathetic culprits. Those with celebrity status, money, and political connections, due to their massive ego and stubborn pride, use ad hominem attack against their betters because they cannot engage them on the merit of their work. Three such examples are: Louis Pasteur vs. Antoine Béchamp; Thomas Edison vs. Nikola Tesla; and Richard Owen vs. Gideon Mantell.
If you cannot humble yourself to acknowledge that someone else’s work is superior to your own, and instead you have to resort to denial, deflection, projection, censorship, "cancelling," manipulation, smearing, gaslighting, jamming, framing, ad hominem, name calling, character assassination, intimidation, and the use of fallacious arguments that have no basis in reality, you are confessing your own intellectual bankruptcy.
When you cannot have a serious, mature, respectful, intelligent, rational, honest conversation, but instead have to go after the individual in order to circumvent what they are saying, in order to dodge and evade the issues (often by way of obfuscation, technicalities, ambiguous language, and equivocation), being unable to argue the main point and never providing a reasonable refutation or an intelligent counter-argument (merely presenting subjective opinions and irrational feelings), you are confessing your own intellectual bankruptcy.
Show yourself to possess integrity, character, and honour; be the bigger man and take the high road.