Well summarised, Justnot, though I would add
'If confronted by Nazis, you should run away',
which LWS shockingly didn't do and therefore ..um... therefore.. oh fill in the blanks with some irrational accusations
Could I suggest adding to 'if you say Nazi you are a Nazi' with the following:
'if you say you are not a Nazi, you are a Nazi because [see above] you said the word 'Nazi' in saying you are not a Nazi.'
I suppose a defamation case could fail because the court could decide that an 'ordinary, reasonable person' [the gold standard for whether or not a statement is defamatory] would see right through the illogical circular Nazi-adjacent accusations against MD, as Justnot illustrated.
I don't know what the legalise for ' Sorry, MD, you have no case - no ordinary reasonable person would believe such illogical shit anyway'..
But the alleged defamers are not just anyone. The 'circumstances of publication' were not somebody muttering about MD being too fond of KJK who is too fond of Nazis in the corner of a pub, they were elected public representatives and public servants. The leader of the opposition and his staff, no less. They hold positions in society where their words carry weight and have a wide audience. They would also be expected by an ordinary reasonable person to be more aware of responsible factchecking than the somebody muttering in the corner of a pub would be.
That said, the 'ordinary reasonable person' is sometimes in short supply, and judging from some of the tortuous [not tortious
] arguments on here.