It could've been activated via a Flag Activation time out date by Core. Didn't need miners to signal/activate it. Core did MASF as a kindness so unaware miners wouldn't mine on a bad chain.

Barry and the miners are an illusion of control and bitcoin will not survive if segwit2x is how bitcoin gets decided by a few company leaders and pack of miners which number below 100 compared to the MILLIONS of users.

SegWit can still be activated via a timeout method but we'd have to wait until current bip141 period is over in November.

People will see no reason to go from fiat to bitcoin if this is how bitcoin is decided.