This would be my guess.

It's probably a backlash to sameness that gets spawned by many of Medium's center/left and progressive/socialistic contributors.

When evaluating Medium articles from the Left, I've noticed two basic archetypes:

1.) Writers who defend a liberal or leftist position by taking a nuanced view, and coming at the problem from multiple angles.

2.) Writers who trumpet virtually the exact same talking-points, in one article after another after another, relying heavily on "us-versus-them" binaries...except they are weaponizing it to combat conservatism (rather than liberalism) and/or anybody associated with conservative policies.

The seemingly new conservative rise you've noticed is probably an organized and conscious overreaction to the banal arguments hammered on by so many Medium writers from the second group I've described.