> Or are you implying they belong to the group who participated in casual racism and sexism that used to be a lot more common in the past

Some of them do, yes.

However, "The other factor is the rise of internet social media, which didn't exist back then." In the past, there was no such thing as being afraid of speaking your mind on social media. You were typically speaking your mind in private, among friends and family. This very conversation that we're having now would have never occurred in 1957, or even 1987.