I wanna reread before I speculate too much, but I'm sure at least a part of its appeal is the reaction to liberal self-flagellation and relegating the blame to a kind of "big other": "It's not your fault for not buying that electric car and giving up straws, it's part of the curse of industrialization!"

Memes that get taken way too seriously by some people

My pet theory is that he was deliberately pushed as a "Misunderstood genius" because he advocated for a dead end and harmless to the system philosophy that preyed on growing environmentalism and prevented that from uniting with actual leftist struggle.

He almost blew up some assholes.