[brsg]

Demographics alone probably explain this well enough in the US. Tech workers skew heavily young and skew heavily college educated. If you sample any population with those demographics - in this political environment - you're going to get some pretty anti-trump sentiments. Although maybe not necessarily "leftist"

Personally, I think Twitter (or any social media) gives the impression that this group is more radical than they probably are as a whole.

[schoen]

But in 1995 or 2000 tech workers also skewed young and college educated and, at least according to my own recollections and a couple of authors I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, their politics did not seem very leftist then. What changed?

[hindsightbias]

The Overton Window.

Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama were not radically divergent from each other politically and socially. Where social policy diverged, it was obviously electoral, not personal. Every single one of these candidates would have/did support stuff like “strong” borders or DOMA until they didnt in practice or somber reflection.

We have a populist rebellion against the status quo and educated youts aren’t Ayn Rand, Goldwater or Milton Friedman fans anymore.