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?