We may disagree about exactly where the line is beyond which behavior is unacceptable. And I'm sure that this line was crossed more often by the Sox crowds from 1998-2004. I also liked those crowds more. Much, much more.I go to a similar number of games and sit maybe half a dozen rows behind you. The only racial slur I've heard in the past 20 years was uttered by a Yankee fan, who was promptly ejected from the stadium (Unfortunately, the black man to whom the slur was directed was ejected as well.)
There's no question that behavior is better than it used to be, but there's still a much greater tolerance for boorish behavior than there is in a lot of other cities. I've seen behavior tolerated at Fenway recently that I couldn't imagine being tolerated in San Francisco or Washington -- nothing as bad as racial slurs, but stuff that would make some people uncomfortable bringing their kids to a game. I don't blame ownership; it's the fan culture here, and I think they're doing all they can to change it gradually over time.
As I said above, I suspect this is why we hear stories like these about awful things that Red Sox fans more often than we hear similar stories about fans of most other teams. (In the case of slurs directed at players, it also matters that a larger number of fans sit within earshot of the field at Fenway than pretty much anyplace else besides Wrigley.)
Positive passion at a sporting event is not nothing. Those crowds from '98 to '04, before the goddam "smart" phone era had much greater passion. Almost every game was a much greater experience than the games now and not just because that was the buildup to their breaking through. I go to games now and the Sox might be two runs or fewer ahead or behind in the 7th inning and I can look down a row of 24 grandstand seats and see 20 people hunched over their fucking phones.
I don't know exactly how you make a realistic sum of the good and the bad as it was. But the good was much much greater before.