I’m old but I don’t see a big mystery. There have always been crazy people among us. Now some of the crazy people have figured out how to use computers and pay their internet bill every month. So they are no longer confined to ranting to themselves on the bus, but now have Twitter and, apparently, GitHub.

its only crazy if you're not affected by the terms

I think it's 2 things.

1) is the tension between what I mean when I say something - When I say "girl" I don't mean a perfect antonym to "boy." "Girl" to me can be a synonym for woman - vs. what you hear when I say something - I say "girl" and you hear "You are an infant not an adult." I think the resolution of this tension is based on your audiance - the more intimate you are with someone the more leeway you give them in meaning but the world is currently crazy and we all live in H.R. land.

2) This is a political power play. It's a way of establishing dominance not for a means but as end either in and of itself or towards other things.

The response to it is to think rationally about what you say and how someone might actually take it. That's hard to do though in the the current atmosphere.