I think it is a sad reality, but responding to someone you disagree with implicitly upvotes and elevates their status (it's hard not to, it really is). Responding to someone implicitly says "this thing I am responding to is worth my time," even if that is not your intent.
This property could be seen in America's election with trump where his bad behavior got him incredible amounts of attention which implicitly gave him authority and therefore a "dominant" status. It was the moderate media that elevated trumps message and played it in front of people who otherwise wouldn't have experienced so much exposure to it. The end result was the message that many Americans got was not that trump is evil and wrong, but that trump is not part of the establishment. "Trump is an enemy of the establishment" was the idea that ultimately propelled him into the white house and it was his enemies who ultimately put him there.
If I were you I would spend a few hours on you tube with Timothy Snyder and read his book 'On Tyranny: the illustrated version."
He has a lot to say about Russian propaganda on youtube.
Here is his speech to the UN that you will almost certainly like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBz9EeLeQ8w
Here is what he would say about your post in the form of a reading from his book On Tyranny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laRIf1QXYek