People always talk about importance of patriarchy for social replication of capitalism, about how capitalism is always going to buck against any attempts at social progress. But I dunno, neoliberalism has been pretty effective at integrating some forms of feminism and gay rights into its polite society, so I feel at some point a lot of bigotry isn't so much material relations, but just a thing of habit...
So I guess my question is, what exactly are those material conditions and why are they making people reactionary on social issues?
If capitalists require a scapegoat they'll create a scapegoat. Fair treatment is a privilege which capitalist psychos grant to people for being their loyal subjects.
The phenomenon here is another face of fascism, the kind that's a normalized part of liberalism. Exactly as you said: scapegoats to distract from the elephant in the room, the decay of capitalism.