"... because if there is one thing these ‘patriots’ absolutely can’t stand, it’s a woman who has the temerity to say things they don’t like or even to speak in public at all.
"Lily Allen, Diane Abbott and Mary Beard have all been targeted by these knuckle-dragging trolls"
I'd add Hilary Clinton to that list, if we really want to conflate "rise of Brexit" (a horrible term) with "rise of Trump".
Added to this state of affairs, which I agree is slightly overblown by the author perhaps, the "anti-PC paranoia" that suggests we are all being muzzled by a mythical "right-on" fascist police.
There was an article in the Irish Times recently be a journalist complaining about a tweet by some writer who had overheard two airline staff indulging in a "transphobic discussion". She had, from this casual tweet, concluded that the writer in question had thus embarked in a foul conspiracy to stifle free speech.
And the comments on the article all enthusuastically agreed.