I grew up an hour to the southeast of the Bay, and went to high school school in Atherton and college at Berkeley (both in the 80s, long before many HN readers were born). I used to be so proud that my home was the most progressive place in the country. Now I am embarrassed. My old home is now emblematic of much that is wrong with our culture.
What the Bay says (We're so liberal! We're anti-Trump!) so deeply contradicts what it does.
Afterwards, the MBAs came in and decided that ads and saas were the ways to make money, and if you diverged they needed to understand it. Which makes sense, and I think it's why we haven't had exactly a 2001 repeat. But it's making tech work far less of a giddy job.
For example, there's always been a strong Libertarian community in the larger Tech community. And over the last couple years a lot of online Libertarian communities have shifted to more right (and far-right) ideology.
There's also a strong Leftist community in the Bay Area, arguably much stronger than the rest of the country. This shouldn't be forgotten. You're way more likely to meet a Communist at a bar in SF than most parts of this country.
There's a strong "liberal" community in the Bay Area, these people will support liberal social issues (Gay/Trans inclusion, virulently anti-Trump, supporting of Muslims and other oppressed communities, reigning in the banks, etc.). But, a lot of these people also suffer from the Not-In-My-Backyard syndrome and will balk at modest reforms to Schooling or Housing Policy.
There's also Reagan Republicans, Antifacists, Anarchists, and people who aren't checked into Politics at all.
I'm not saying everyone in the Bay Area fits into one of these groups or even that my characterizations of these groups are accurate. These groups aren't monoliths.
I would just encourage you to not let your heart get broken, things can get better. The Bay Area is still very Progressive. Volunteer for a Progressive Campaign, DSA, or some other progressive organization and I think you'll get your hope back!
I went to Berkeley in the 80s. I’ve been back and it’s no where near as counter culture. It’s often the difference between hippie and hipster.
The reality is that if you live your convictions, it starts to become impossible to afford to live in the Bay Area, much like it becomes more and more impossible to remain honest and keep winning elections to higher and higher office. Such people either sell out or move out.
I do think that things are different now, and there's very substantial generation gap in the political scene that has made it hard to create movement, but the threads that connect the old to the new are there and are rapidly getting stronger as tech has gotten more consolidated under a few roofs.
The people in the penthouse can go a long time before the fire ever reaches them; and they’ll probably get airlifted out anyway.