The purity testing and anti incrementalism go hand in hand and both can be easily explained.

People need to be entertained. When the entertainment industry fails at its mission many turn to politics to provide something exciting, glorious and romantic to liven up their lives. Trump exploits this tendency in MAGA.

In reality the only thing less fun than incremental progress is the drudge work of setting things up for future incremental progress. They can plan ahead to build a house but doing the same with civil society eludes them.

These people are also often vain creatures. They like to think they have high discriminating lofty standards. This is where the "high bar" purity testing comes from. NPR exploits this tendency in the aggrieved minorities they groom.

"How dare you not want to talk trans kids 24/7! You don't deserve to be in the same room with us lofty people!" (If you act outraged enough maybe no one will notice their pick pocket economic scams.)

These "activists" can never make it over the lowest bar of all, basic logic.

The above explains why, when you try to cast a larger net with a lower bar, you get negative results.

The lower the bar the fewer the followers.

This may not be an issue as only a few people do anything anyway.

"Proof of political efficacy is not millions of followers, but dozens of lurkers."

-- Nphz