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?
But that's what they are. Because the only power those words have is the power you allow them to have.
They're not an (immediate) threat to you, by virtue of being very far away and not knowing where you live. They could be a threat to someone else, someone they share a physical space with, sure, but removing them from an online space doesn't make that person disappear or make them less racist, if anything it'll make them hide their racism better. Isn't that more dangerous?
"Being racist" is not an immutable characteristic people have. The best (non-violent) way to get rid of racists is to expose them to the people/cultures/ethnicities they are racist against. Otherwise they will forge their own insular, racist communities where they will reinforce each others' racism and push each other to extremes.
That's a tactic. You can call them slurs too, "cumskin" is a good one. If you let them get to you, then they will know their tactic works. So next time they are losing or want to get their opponent angry (if we're talking about gaming) then they will just repeat what they did knowing it is successful. Showing them their words have no power might make them rethink their strategy.
I'm saying you shouldn't let them kick you out with words. If you're all gamers in a Halo lobby (to use your example) they have no way of actually removing you from a public lobby, other than getting you angry with their words. But fuck that, make them leave if they don't like it. After a while of screaming racial slurs they might be the ones who get angry enough to ragequit. Isn't it preferable that they be the ones who leave and not you?
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.