u/SOMETHINGELSEYEAH

Post is pretty much in the question, but I think it was around 2015-2018 the shift started. Basically, when did the internet become less edgy, vile, and absolutely despicable and become moderated and less reliant on shock

That's just it really. I had a guy try and tell me he actually wasn't homophobic because he thinks that just because he finds same sex marriage and homosexuality as a whole "sketchy", "degenerate", and "morally corrupt" and therefore shouldn't have the same rights as het marriages or even her people because they "chose that lifestyle, he is able to tolerate other totally similar actions like pedophilia and bestiality, and therefore isn't homophobic which needless to say is the WILDEST mental gymnastics I had ever seen out of someone. If you degradingly compare homosexuals to these actual disgusting acts, then you're homophobic and intolerant, there's really no other way around it. There may be SOME people who think that simply same sex marriage itself shouldn't be equal becuase they believe marriage is a construct around a man and woman and sure, whatever. But as soon as you extend that to honosexuals and how they should be treated differently from "normal people" and how disgusting and "morally corrupt" they are that's where you lose most people.