Once you see one person behave like that, a very easy trap to fall into is to think that everyone who is concerned about even vaguely similar things is trying to do the same thing, even if their concern is fair/reasonable.
The dominant view on social issues swings like a pendulum. When one extreme falls out of disfavor, there is a shift toward the other extreme.
I hope that one day we can settle on something sane. I'm not going to hold my breath, though.
It might be more comfortable for those folks that have gotten burned if there was a more endemic feeling of having any recourse. It being the case that there isn't, asking for people to feel empathy for another group of people that has actively persecuted them is a big ask. To my mind an unreasonably big ask.