Like, I remember as recently as 2016, that term was just used as a mocking term for weird larpers. Now, it's used as a term for people they want to purge from the left (yes, I'm using those words. How they're acting is literally the definition of purging, it doesn't have to include violence).
When the feds started using it as part of a new digital red scare campaign by coopting left wing reactionaries and children.