Well, I can't tell why you bother, but to the extent that I bother, it's because I want people to live in a better world in which they are healthier and have more fulfilling and less fearful lives.

Even if they try really hard, sometimes, to do things that will make it all worse.

I hope your friend is okay. It didn't sound from the article like it got to full cancel mode, so hopefully it was just shocking and unpleasant, not genuinely dangerous.

I don't know if you've read The Coddling of the American Mind by Lukianoff and Haidt (2018), but this is classic Witch Hunt behavior (chapter 5).