I do think there has been a bit of a strangle hold on what has been considered acceptable to express views for a while, especially in mainstream media and that has hidden a lot of disagreement with the way society has seemed to be changing. Social media, which doesn’t have gatekeepers, has unleashed that and those voices have found audiences and grown. So I think there is a backlash, but I don’t think the change is as big as it seems. I think we’ve had a somewhat false view of how much agreement there has been with progressive values up to now.
But also - I heard a radio interview with a journalist recently who has been exploring the rising tide of support for Trump in the US and he found that many of the people who talked to from previously traditionally Democrat leaning populations are leaning towards Trump for two reasons - being taken for granted by the left and the stridency of activists from progressive movements. I know strident is a word often used in a sexist way against women, but in this case it was more BLM and LGBT (especially around trans right) activism and jumping down people’s throats if they used language that had become verboten within left wing circles. That many people who support Trump don’t necessarily disagree with gay rights, or women’s rights, or think white people really are better, they’re just sick of feeling harassed for getting on with their lives.
This rang a bell with me because a couple of decades ago there was research I saw in the US around whether the politics of someone’s roommate in the first year in college had any impact on their own politics after college. They found that there was no impact except in the case of people put in with highly activist left wing roommates, in that case the impact was to send people significantly to the right. That study had a big impact on my own actions (I’m a fairly active left winger) and totally changed the way I engage with people who don’t agree with me on progressive politics. I wish it had been as impactful on the left in the US in general, I don’t think the US would be where it is today if the Democrats hadn’t engaged in so much (somewhat unjustified) self-righteousness over Trump or if they had found a way to encourage nuanced discussion, or developed policy that really addressed the increasing disparity in income.
I see similar in the UK and note that Starmer realised, if he wanted to win, he had to tone down the rhetoric and not turn it into an us v. them game.