Comment by Izkata

> They are (or were throughout the 2010s)

More thoroughly:

* The online left was using terms like "social justice warrior" to describe themselves in the late 2000s/early 2010s. Some of them even used alternate terms to try and fit their kind of activism closer, one I remember being "social justice paladin".

* The first big round of backlash turned SJW into an insult in the mid 2010s, so they rebranded themselves as "woke".

* As the backlash grew, "woke" was also turned into an insult.

* DEI was the most recent rebranding, but since that describes actions instead of the people doing the actions there wasn't really a way to turn it directly into an insult, and "progressive" isn't zing-y enough to catch on, so "woke" stuck.