As far as I can tell, there's very little in the way of physical threats, but (most) people are very vulnerable to emotional attacks.

As I understand it, that's part of what's powering SJWs-- they felt (and I'd say rightly) that they were and are subject to pervasive emotional attack both from the culture and from individuals, and are trying to make a world they can be comfortable in.

That "as I understand it" is not boilerplate-- I read a fair amount of SJ material and (obviously) spent a lot of time thinking and obsessing about it, but this is a huge subject (and isn't the same in all times, places, and sub-cultures), and I've never been an insider.