What I mean is that talking about mass persuation was (and to a certain degree, it still is) crackpot talk.

I'm not talking about the persuations themselves, it's the general public perception of someone or some group that raises awareness about it.

This also excludes ludic talk about it (people who just generally enjoy post-apocalyptic aesthetics but doesn't actually consider it to be a thing that can happen).

5 years ago, if you brought up serious talk about mass systemic persuation, you were either a lunatic or a philosopher, or both.