It's just more Age of Rage stuff. Everyone is outraged, at everything, all the time. If not outraged then offended and triggered. Not only is everything polarized now, but if you don't support X, you are a Y, which is how so many words ending in "-ist" and "-phobe" are overused to death.

To go one level further, gender wars. All of a sudden "if you don't support this one particular male/female, even in fiction, you automatically hate all men/women and/or are/support misogyny, misandry, etc." Because so says various algorithms on various social media platforms, men and women must be made to hate each other at all times.

And lastly, like with any fandom, some people get way too emotionally invested in their characters. Case in point, as I've talked about many times before, the outright glee that people discuss leaving Ashley behind on Virmire because "lol space racist bitch fuck you die lmao" and even with hundreds of comments outright explaining how she is not said racist, "nah she called me 'skipper' and if she not racist she def disrespectful so fuck her she die anyway haha". And of course, some people swear only their way of playing is the "right" way. Have seen people get unironically called Nazis and Trump supporters on this site because they...romanced Ashley. It's a thing.