I think it’s many things, but the big one is a reaction to the polarization of politics by the media and the radicalization of the right/rise of fascism. Fascists will spout any nonsensical belief that they can come up with, because they know they sound ridiculous and they don’t care. Because that’s not the point. The point is to make you have to waste energy debunking it while they do something else. Add in the often used Republican strategy of rendering useful words into meaningless garbage, like “woke” and “politically correct” before it, and the thinking man is left two steps behind and always trying to play catch-up with those trying to torch everything they can get their hands on.
So with a group spouting nonsense with the sole purpose of having their opponents be too busy disproving it to prevent them from destroying the rights of minorities, and a group that claims that both sides are equally as bad because they agree with the fascists but don’t want to take responsibility or face the consequences for having those opinions, is it any wonder that actual disagreement is being mistaken for that disingenuous “enlightened centrism”?
Plus, there’s a time for discourse, and a time for action. And I think people are starting to feel that we’ve spent too many years doing the first and we need to start doing the second. In short, I think people are starting to feel that there’s some kind of deadline fast approaching and the stress is starting to get to them.