That’s not quite it. It’s that this board has a huge problem with what they term “white knighting,” which in this case is sticking up for someone you vehemently disagree with. You don’t have to hate someone, but you are expected not to defend them unless it’s begrudgingly. And you definitely are not allowed to comment on how other people are acting.
It’s the same reason I would get called out for defending people who were getting piled on. In fact, I’ve seen our names lumped together in that regard on certain other boards.
The one thing you do better is that you figured out how to do it without getting people to hate you. I just basically gave up. Though part of that is because I see less of it, and often see other people doing it for me. Occasionally, I’ll do the “begrudging defense” thing, but I mostly just stay out of it.
I also may have become more likely to think the person deserves it–don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. Like, I wouldn’t have chosen to defend SA, even though my only real problem with him is the rape thing. I also think his stuff about how the world was better off in the 50s was silly, but I haven’t seen that in a while. (That was him, right?)
Sorry to ramble. But my point is, I think the reason people don’t like what you are doing is that they think your defense is too vigorous, and too much like covering up other person’s problems. You don’t have to hate him, but you shouldn’t like him, either.