Don't you see how if:

* An ignorant authoritarian with an obvious agenda sets the discussion topic

* We discuss said topic without mentioning his ignorance, authoritarianism, or agenda

The topic effectively becomes "laundered"? Much like OP, I've seen this over and over again. Trump (or similar) says something batshit insane, a "well, maybe..." topic gets bumped to the front page, political discussion gets culled from the thread, topic gets somewhat normalized. And so the koo-koo express keeps chugging towards the cliff.