There is plenty of pernicious discourse to go around. I think some people take on marginalized identities (there are some you aren’t born into but can self-attest) for the sense of purpose, meaning and community it gives. Someone who is neurodivergent, weird and awkward has certain problems but by adding a fashionable identity to the mix they can find meaning attacking people like DHH gives their life meaning and then get attacked by clinically crazy marginal people who like Trump at the community center and feel vindicated in their world view.

This is a “meme” which ultimately spreads or doesn’t spread and I’d argue that’s the right frame to discuss it as opposed to frames that attribute some meaning to the words or try to situate them in one cause or another, especially any sort of unicause of the left or the right. It is not violent but it causes harm to the host the same way a DNA or RNA virus does. DHH is caught up in it because he doean’t understand that it is pointless to treat this as a ‘discussion’ or a ‘debate’ or communication in the conventional sense.

The people who are fighting with him are not doing anything to make workplaces better, that kind of slacktivism tends to create an equal and opposite backlash and creates a set of people who will oppose what they are doing and precludes any kind of activism, discussion or debate that would make things better. But it’s self-reinforcing the same way a dog will keep barking because it feels good to bark.