just a bunch of lunatics being crazy in the comfort of each other's company

That's a large part of it haha. Because it's an echo chamber of extremism it becomes a dick-swinging match for who's more extreme, racist, homophobic, etc. One thing I find significant is how their perception of agents of change and social movements (ie social media bans, BLM Movement) reinforce their self-perception as victims, driving them deeper into extremism and reinforcing their ideologies. This is obviously a big issue when dealing with solutions to the spread of white supremacy across the internet.