The particular neckbeardy, fedora wearing, Sam Harris listening trend of atheism was a pretty clear reaction to the evangelical psychosis of the Bush administration.
Other geriatrics here can attest that the character of Christianity at the time was way different than it is now. These days, the fascists are more "culturally Christian" and avoid overt bible apologism. But back in the day, these people were constantly on TV spewing young earth creationism and other shit, and they were largely taken seriously. It's hard to believe now how much time was spent "debating" evolution back then. The atheist backlash at least affected discourse aesthetically for some time, making these views laughable, which deplatformed a lot of evangelicals or made them hide their power levels on TV.
Some argue that this brand of atheism justifies imperialism. It does so really only in theory. There really is no material basis for atheists in the US to justify an invasion anywhere in the world. The truth is that Christianity is still a far more powerful force for imperialism. Bush said that God told him to invade Iraq. I don't see any president saying anytime soon that the US needs to secularize a country through force.
If fundamentalist and political religiosity were defeated, then belligerent atheism would dissolve, but the reverse is not true.
Overall, it really does seem like people over emphasize this group of internet no-lifers because of the cultural cringe they manifested.
Yeah it's kind of fuzzy because it was a while ago. But come on, it was implied. You don't corner a woman in an elevator at 4am and then do something like that. She felt threatened, and that's all that mattered. She posted on her blog about it and was viciously attacked by these supposedly liberated-from-the-shackles-of -Christianity humans who reacted the exact same way Christians would.
For sure, it was a long time ago with a lot of arguments in its wake. To be clear I'm not at all claiming that the backlash to her stating she felt uncomfortable was justified, it wasn't. I just felt your description was somewhat exaggerated.