I'm coming to the belief that many liberals don't think things can really get much better, so stuff like acknowledgement and "feeling bad in the right way" are important to them because they think that's the best you can do with many of these issues.

I think it's related to the general political impotence people feel all over, the same impulse that makes people post political shit as though it's praxis. If you feel powerless, you maybe need to read more meaning into ultimately insignificant gestures to feel hope or whatever.