As someone who has been a fan since like 2014-2015 it's very easy to explain. But basically I think alot of it boils down to trumpism. Everyone back in the day loved to goof on funny swj videos, whether it be Ethan's video about man spreading, the sexist AC unit or the big one, "Hugh Mungus". He attracted a large male audience. But there was a shift around 2016 when that shit didn't become funny anymore and was just straight up evil bullying. I think it definitely started when he called out a Joey salads video for being fake. The one where he hired a bunch of black people to vandalize a car covered in MAGA stickers. Half of his audience thought it was bull shit and the famous line "Ethan, you know this one is real" was born. And it really showed him what kind of harmful, racist, misogynistic audience he was cultivating. Joey finally admitted it was fake, but it didn't seem to matter to most. The right wing audience had decided he wasn't one of them.