It's like, at first, it was relatively apolitical except maybe the New Atheists who got popular by criticizing the mostly right-wing religious nutjobs.
But then, I think around the mid-2010s, it started to get super political. Suddenly, everybody started to talk about how the evil wacky removed SJWs were trying to destroy gaming and our culture?
At this point, it seems like many people have snapped out of it and are making fun of these "anti-woke" crazies, but what materially caused this phenomenon to happen in the first place and why does it still persist to an extent?
Bigots are cowards at heart, and largely they will act on their feelings only to the extent that they believe they have social license to do so. Scared bigots are less dangerous than emboldened bigots.
You think online moderation makes bigots scared? Come on... They hide it cause they don't want to be banned from platforms. This also makes them able to "infiltrate" spaces if they so wish.