Martin, I do agree with McWhorter that there is a religious-seeming fervor to social media "defenestrations," as he puts them (in your two earlier links). The evangelical/crusading nature of fervor even in supposedly non-religious areas isn't a new observation, and McWhorter doesn't pretend it is, since he refers to onetime Eratospherean
Jody Bottum's 2014 book on the same phenomenon, and for centuries theists have accused atheists of behaving like zealots whose church is Science and Reason.
The auto-da-fe phenomenon is repeated in various ways throughout human history because it appeals to several common, though unsavory, parts of human nature--the power dynamics of sadism, plus the thirst for social "belonging" and validation, plus the entertainment of a public spectacle, plus individuals' sincere desire to see themselves as good. No political persuasion is immune from that phenomenon. Better to caution everyone against getting swept up in that sort of destructive fervor, rather than singling out either liberals or conservatives.
But I'm not convinced that the religious metaphor is apt in this case, as McWhorter's essay claims. As far I know, the critics of the translator choice were not calling for defenestrations and resignations and firings. They issued no threats or demands. They just publicly complained about the missed opportunity. If we are unhappy with Rijneveld's and the various publishers' responses to the controversy, I don't think that their choices can be blamed on the critics. Just as when the critics of a poem workshopped here express unhappiness with the first stanza, and the poet changes it for the worse. That's on the poet who chose an unfortunate response to the criticism, not on the critics themselves.
I do very much appreciate what McWhorter has said on some other topics, though. For example, I was happily surprised to see him defend recent trends to adjust English pronouns to accommodate non-binary gender identities--a change which conservatives have spent a lot of energy resisting and ridiculing:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...w-they/568993/