> They wanted a safe space to hate on people involved in AI art and my leaving contributed to that.

Once again, I have to ask, why do you think that that is what they want? Maybe they want human generated content?

> the zeitgeist switch where suddenly the entire conversation goes from pros/cons to what appears to be a standard, negative message that everyone absorbed in a short time.

Understandable, though. Why discuss the pros and cons of $FOO when you're drowning in it? All you want it to stop the drowning.