There's no way these people don't keep massive online dossiers of "problematic" behavior of strangers. How obsessed do you have to be to go after a Youtuber you don't watch, because they did a single video with some other minor Youtuber you never watched, who said something in a deleted Tumblr post several years ago.
It's trickle down cancelnomics.
These dossiers usually originate from places like (like as in, sharing the same philosophy, not like as in, actually) kiwifarms, where individual obsessives (read: stalkers) with no life carefully curate this stuff and specifically inject it into any controversy that trends in an attempt to further enflame and provoke "problematic responses". Like everything else on the web in 2021, there's nothing organic about the controversy, it's all carefully directed and controlled by a small minority and places like ERA
always take the bait.
Y'all are gunna roll your eyes, but it's the exact thing that started Gamergate; it works, and that's why it keeps happening.
Then, when the eventual conclusion is reached (in this case, what is essentially a mental breakdown) there is no self-reflection or accountability for individuals, only concerned posts about social media and parasocial relationships and locked threads.
We joke about ERA killing people, but the organized campaigns of online harassment that have led some to self-harm has surely filtered through ERA posters who gleefully participated in the mob but will quickly distance themselves from any responsibility.