No, it is a somewhat casual way of relying on the clear context of the discussion to express what, were one to be more concerned about the kind of bad faith ped

No, it is a somewhat casual way of relying on the clear context of the discussion to express what, were one to be more concerned about the kind of bad faith pedantry that is used to dismiss ideas in online discussions than the author clearly was, might be expressed more verbosely as “the attitude that ‘it can’t happen here’ about undesirable political outcomes produces popular complacency which, in turn, makes it more possible to happen than it would otherwise be.”