I think it's one thing to tell someone a cool factoid about black holes you learned from Cosmos. But it's something else entirely to make strong claims about some aspect of black holes (or vaccines, or climate change, etc) and insist you're right to the death when you haven't read any of the literature. These are the situations I was thinking of when I made the original post. Haha, true! I do have to admit I've been guilty of this (although hopefully with better language ;)). I could certainly stand to improve my public science communication skills.You're saying that people shouldn't be able to discuss that episode of Cosmos about black holes unless they've read Kip Thorne's original research.
Throwing original research into an internet pissing match simply shows that you don't know how to convince your audience - if you did, you'd explain why that original research makes your point instead of writing "RTFM n00b."
Where I'm at: The most important thing is to have a firm understanding of what you know about black holes, where you learned it, and how trustworthy any new information about black holes you hear is likely to be. The trick is to be able to dilute Nature down to 9gag. It can be done, and the winners are the ones who are willing to do it. Be willing to do it.