Normalize some crazy bullshizz and you normalize it all
It's not harmless to take trash talk mainstream
First one Republican claims Soros is funding a massive throng of immigrants; then the President claims Dems are encouraging a flood of noncitizens to come and vote in the election. Facts disappear forever in a haze of meaningless noise
Next one crazy man is mailing pipe bombs to Soros and other supposed enemies. Soon another crazy "deciphers" the nonsense as evidence "Trump is controlled by the Jews!" and hallucinates trucks decorated with the Star of David bringing immigrant hoards into the country, before grabbing his gun and murdering innocent folk at a synagogue
It's largely a waste of time trying to debunk the nonsense: the people who believe it won't be persuaded by the debunking; and the trolls who maliciously spread the garbage around without believing it themselves won't be stopped by the debunking
Worse yet, taking time to debunk obvious trash talk can undermine our own credibility. If crazy Uncle Fred wanders around the neighborhood warning everybody that the mothership has told him to beware of body-snatching shape-shifting alien lizard people who are planning to take over the town, nobody sane thinks it necessary to tell the neighbors that Fred is not actually in contact with any mothership and that there is really no evidence that body-snatching shape-shifting alien lizard people will take over the town
