Maybe it was…SPACE ALIENS!
More seriously, I’m sure some of it is phony, but certainly not all of it, and the reports of abuses and rising visibility of white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny are so widespread that it’s unreasonable to wave it away. This is real; it’s bad; it has to be stopped.
It’s one thing for people to be racist, etc., but it’s another thing for them to express those feelings so openly that minorities feel actively threatened on a daily basis.