Like many IFB doctrinal and moral standards, KJV-onlyism is a great example of a "purity spiral"--a kind of groupthink in which it is beneficial to hold the group's views, more radical views are encouraged, and doubts or calls for moderation are punished.
Fundamentalists used to be Textus Receptus-preferred and acknowledged that the KJV had some deficiencies. That morphed into the KJV itself being without error, then being itself divinely inspired. Then Peter Ruckman came along and went one step further, saying it was superior to, and "corrected," the Greek text. Conversely, he flamed anyone holding more moderate opinions. No surprise, I suppose, that everyone went along to get along, given Dr. Petey's powers of persuasion and bullying.
We see the same purity spiral with fundamentalist opinions of Westcott and Hort. John Burgon objected to their textual opinions of the New Testament and their critical methodology. Benjamin Wilkinson and D. A. Waite called them theological heretics. Then G. A. Riplinger came along and declared them occultists and Satanists. Ask your average fundy about them, and they probably repeat Riplinger's claims as incontrovertible (the FFF is full of such), when arguably the truth is closer to Burgon's version, maybe in Hort's case leaning a little toward Waite's, as he was more liberal theologically than the evangelical Westcott.
It's a competition to be literally "holier-than-thou."
