It's become something of a canonical example of a conspiracy theory. Eliezer would have been better served choosing something less topical, but I don't think bringing it up in the context of an example fringe belief is politicized to anywhere near the same extent as bringing it up as a serious proposal would be, for the same reason it isn't particularly controversial to say that, for example, President Obama is not regularly engaged in Satanic ritual abuse.

There's an asymmetry there, but it's one that you should expect when dealing with uncommon beliefs.