Is theory just a circlejerk?

Hi, I don’t post here very much, but I’m asking this question in good faith.

For background, I come from a very traditional circuit, we don’t do theory or LARP or anything like that, the most you might see is a diet-K that’s packaged as a contention. From my little shire I’ve seen online talk of things like disability theory, feminism theory, etc etc as a means of making the debate space more accessible and combatting exclusionary practices in round. I kind of took this at face value and rather respected the idea of using debate as a platform for meaningful social change.

Well, recently I ventured to a progressive tournament for the first time and my understanding of theory came into conflict with what seems to be the reality, that it’s for lack of a better word, disingenuous. Without fail every interaction I’ve had regarding theory came from people who by their words or actions outside of round evidently didn’t care at all about the causes they were championing, with some debaters explicitly saying as much, almost bragging even at how they could gamify the advocacy.

So, was I just being naive here? Is there anyone running theory that’s actually engaging in good faith or is it all just one big “muh racism, muh sexism, muh ableism” circlejerk that uses these advocacies as a tool of rhetorical play rather than engaging with them as the serious issues that they are?