Saw this thread, and it really hit a chord with me, as these similar fears tend to constantly weigh on me (for various reasons- being trans, ethnic Chinese, commie, etc).
I think we all (leftists, but also just most minorities) know, shit is bad and will get worse, it's just a question of how bad it will get. People mention it offhand without usually going further into the details, and similarly in other spaces - non-leftist ones as well, for instance Asian diasporic and LGBT spaces in my experience, these fears come up, but ultimately we keep the bulk of our concerns to ourselves. What are our expectations here, for the west? Not just for the US, but the Anglosphere and Europe?
Are they? Seems to me like they've more of just stopped talking about anti-Asian hate crimes (though at least part of it may be being too keyed in to Asian diasporic spaces and getting cabin fever over it myself).
As for that... while I knew that the witchhunts were ongoing in STEM, against community orgs, etc... it's another to hear of the other side of the picture. That it's "a lot" of your coworkers wanting to get in on the action in your experience is actually much worse than what I'd expect, despite having seen a lot of shit where I am...