In the context of the talk/article, I think its clear that Feynman is critical here of the "fairly[sic]-tale explanations", and not the idea itself.
I've always understood this talk as amounting to "we claim that our society respects science, but our society seems unwilling to apply the rigor that science demands to sort out fact from fiction. See, for instance, all of these erroneous explanations for observed phenomenon, explanations that do not hold up to rigorous examination".
I've always understood this talk as amounting to "we claim that our society respects science, but our society seems unwilling to apply the rigor that science demands to sort out fact from fiction. See, for instance, all of these erroneous explanations for observed phenomenon, explanations that do not hold up to rigorous examination".