Comment by 9x39

Prior to ubiquitous mobile Internet and social media, we had geographic boundaries around communities. Now those lines are being rapidly blurred, and there's bleedover in regional thought into some semblance of broader online community.

But the point is that the observation that the world seems nuts and a liberal city in the West feels cosmopolitan isn't necessarily wrong - the liberal West is a global minority. Illiberal views are the global majority. What did we expect when we started merging thought globally? And most of the world isn't even 'online' yet in sense they've joined these spaces, they're marginally connected based on how you measure it, or in their own regional spaces.