> part of the reason that people get punished for uttering it is because those of us doing the punishing (myself included) are worried that people might start believing it
I think this is the irrational part people are detecting. Yes a few thousand idiots on the internet believe some anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and a few more joke about it, but it's simply not something anyone remotely normal accepts. People also say that gingers don't have souls, but even that's not something that would be healthy to worry about.
Those numbers are far underestimated, and grow exponentially when you consider all of the other types of scapegoating conspiracy theories that attack other groups of people on the internet.
I think this is the irrational part people are detecting. Yes a few thousand idiots on the internet believe some anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and a few more joke about it, but it's simply not something anyone remotely normal accepts. People also say that gingers don't have souls, but even that's not something that would be healthy to worry about.