I don't understand the desire on the left to pretend there are no clout chasers that take up left causes just for clout

Nobody is doing that though. What they are doing is questioning whether this is common enough to even bother reporting on. The media loves to blow things out of proportion in order to create a viral story, which is exactly why people are bringing up Occupy Wall Street. Back then the media would find the kookiest person they could to stick in front of a camera so that person would be seen by the public as a clownish representative for the movement even though they weren't.