DrChinese.
Thank you very much for a prompt a detailed reply. Let me try to comment.
1. Indeed, if your theory has two contradictory conclusions, or assumptions, that means the theory is, strictly speaking, wrong. By the way, for this very reason quantum theory, in the specific form used to prove the Bell theorem, is, strictly speaking, wrong. Mathematically wrong. It does contain two contradictory assumptions. One of these assumptions must be wrong – logic does not allow any other conclusion. Specifically, I believe that unitary evolution (UE) is right, and the projection postulate (PP) is, strictly speaking, wrong. This is just my opinion, so you may agree or disagree, but you just cannot have both UE and PP, for the simple reason that they contradict each other, and you don’t seem to dispute that. If you do, please advise. In the following I won’t repeat this caveat and will assume that it is PP that is wrong. PP may be a good approximation, it may be a very good approximation, it may be an excellent approximation, it may be an amazingly great approximation, but the bottom line is it’s just an approximation. It just cannot be precise, because if it is, then UE has its share of problems.
2. Maybe I don’t quite understand you, or my English fails me, but I don’t quite see what is wrong about going against the weakest argument of the opponent. I would think in any contest the opponent’s weakest point is fair game. Furthermore, we are not in a court room, I think we both are just trying to understand something better, so I would think we should just agree with each other’s strongest argument, rather than waste time refusing to concede what we believe is actually correct in the opponent’s arguments.
3. I don’t quite get it. Such people as Shimony and Zeilinger, who are no fans of LR, admit that the “detection loophole” (and, consequently, the fair sampling assumption) presents a serious problem (see the relevant quotes at
https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1702189&postcount=13 and
https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1705826&postcount=65 ). Do you really believe we should accept the fair sampling assumption without discussion? You yourself gave an example where this assumption may be less than obvious – “An example would be celestial objects used as "standard candles".” I guess the following reasoning by Santos makes some sense: “In the context of LHV theories the fair sampling assumption is, simply, absurd. In fact, the starting point of any hidden variables theory is the hypothesis that quantum mechanics is not complete, which essentially means that states which are considered identical in quantum theory may not be really identical. For instance if two atoms, whose excited states are represented by the same wave-function, decay at different times, in quantum mechanics this fact may be attributed to an ”essential indeterminacy”, meaning that identical causes (identical atoms) may produce different effects (different decay times). In contrast, the aim of introducing hidden variables would be to explain the different effects as due to the atomic states not being really identical, only our information (encapsuled in the wave-function) being the same for both atoms. That is, the essential purpose of hidden variables is to attribute differences to states which quantum mechanics may consider identical. Therefore it is absurd to use the fair sampling assumption -which rests upon the identity of all photon pairs- in the test of LHV theories, because that assumption excludes hidden variables a priori.”
4. I agree, there are “new and improved Bell tests every year”. However, so far the result is always the same: no violation of the genuine Bell inequalities. For some reason there is always something: either the detection loophole, or locality loophole, you name it. 45 years and counting – no violations. That reminds me the following words from Heller’s “Catch-22”:
"I've got just the twelve-year-old virgin you're looking for," he announced jubilantly. "This twelve-year-old virgin is really only thirty-four, but she was brought up on a low-protein diet by very strict parents and didn't start sleeping with men until"
5. I don’t know, I fail to see how entanglement can eliminate LR, as existence of entanglement is not enough to prove the Bell theorem. You need the projection postulate. You are a knowledgeable person, so I am sure you appreciate that “entanglement of particles that are outside of each other's light cones” per se does not eliminate LR. In general, the only thing that could be fatal to LR is genuine BIV (that is, if we forget about superdeterminism). So far genuine BIV have not been demonstrated, and I don’t hold my breath.
I don’t get it. I specifically indicated the two mutually contradictory assumptions that are both predictions of QM and necessary to prove the Bell theorem. So while I could agree that “If you think QM itself is based on mutually contradictory assumptions (which some claim is the case), that is NOT equivalent to saying Bell itself is based on those assumptions.”, this is not relevant, because the proof of the Bell theorem is indeed based on two mutually contradictory assumptions, and I specifically indicated that, showing where the proof uses UE and PP. As for the cos^2(theta) rule, when you use it for both particles of the singlet, I believe you need the projection postulate (to count the QM correlations), and PP directly contradicts UE.
6. I don’t know. My impression was that the Copenhagen interpretation’s grip on physics was much stronger then than now. But I may be mistaken.
7. Again, entanglement does not eliminate LR. And Einstein is no relative of mine. It is my understanding he opposed the uncertainty principle. So he was wrong on this issue (at least I believe so). But the uncertainty principle per se does not eliminate LR either. On the other hand, Einstein’s EPR paper led to significant progress.
8. I readily admit that I don’t know much about GHZ, Leggett etc., but I suspect they basically have the same problems as the Bell theorem. For example, I have not heard anybody state that they were successfully used to conduct loophole-free experiments eliminating LR.
My assessment is there are neither no-go theorems nor experimental data eliminating LR. But I certainly respect your point of view.