Galaxy
I think it is that people now have the means to share their views and it is very shocking to some people that people hold different views to their own.
There may well be an element of that for sure.
Back in my last city and before the Internet was widespread etc etc - and, if I'd been asked in say the 1980s for instance, what I thought people in Britain were like by and large - I'd have probably answered: "Many intelligent, a lot pretty liberal, most are middle-class, most have got good manners, most pretty open-minded and quite a few are political activists and overall live and let live".
Cue for decades later and living in small town in West Wales and the economy having changed a lot for the worse and politics having done some things I really do not approve of and I do have to literally look over my shoulder before I say anything to see if there's anyone standing nearby (as I've been leapt on and verbally bashed more than once for saying something no-one thought twice about back then and back there).