But there is a lot more nuance in this audience than in the mass population.   A simple explanation of the misconceptions - evolution is the survival of the fitter and not the fittest, for example - goes a long way for most people.

Natural selection is common sense to a lot more people than most scientists realize, because it's the real crazy people that stand out to biologists.  It's been less than 100 years since continental drift much less plate tectonics became hypothesized much less affirmed - but it would surprise you if anyone disbelieved them now yet geologists and some paleontologists probably think a lot of people don't accept those for the same reason that biologists think evolution is under siege - crazy people talk louder.    The term 'Darwinism' is the perfect way to honor Darwin.   Einstein doesn't get that kind of respect, nor do Mendel, Linnaeus, Newton, Freud, Galileo or plenty of others.
 
As I've said too many times to count, people attacking Darwin have nothing in the way of real arguments - it's like attacking Henry Ford because he didn't make the perfect car a hundred years ago.    That doesn't mean Ford Motor Company should change their name.

You are right, I shouldn't have been so flippant. I did mean that some basic concepts using familiar ideas would go a long way to helping the public understand how evolutionary theory works. People aren't stupid (well, most people) and appreciate someone making the effort instead of insulting their intelligence. (I didn't mean that would require dumbing down, because I am ardently opposed to that. It drives me nuts that newspapers publicly admit they target a 6th grade or 9th grade level in their coverage. If you don't raise the bar, people won't have any reason to think or work for it.) Anyway, my dad is an example of the person I want to reach. He is a stunningly brilliant attorney, but every time I came home from school I had to start all over with DNA because he just couldn't grasp it, which was frustrating because to me understanding science concepts is as natural as breathing. I finally started explaining it using railroad tracks as an analogy (his speciality is railroads) and suddenly the light went on. How do people think the Catholic Church converted so many people so fast? They used pagan traditions the population already knew and were familiar with, and the teachings were spread easily and quickly.