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There is a name for it. Somebody studied it. You are not imagining the technique.
When you leave an argument feeling steamrolled but unable to say which part was wrong, that is not you being slow. It is a documented method with a documented name.
The technique. Bury the other side in claims faster than anyone can answer them. Quantity over quality. Weak arguments that sound solid, half-truths, twisted facts and outright lies, thrown out faster than anyone could answer them in the time available.
Why it works. Every claim takes far longer to knock down than to make. Ten seconds to say it, five minutes to take it apart. Run enough of them and your opponent either skips most of them, which looks like you agree, or answers a few, which looks like dodging the rest.
1994. Anthropologist Eugenie Scott gives it a name: the Gish gallop, after creationist Duane Gish, who she said did it more than anyone. Gish would flood evolution debates with so many claims that scientists could not keep up, and audiences scored it as a win.
The trap. It only works on an audience with no way to check in real time. Which is now essentially every audience.
You have watched this happen. You have probably lost an argument to it while being right.
Naming a technique is most of the defense against it.
Wear the name. Next time somebody does it, you can say what it is called.
Sources: Gish gallop — Wikipedia
