FB tightly controls communication between users. If I post photos, everyone sees them. If I post anything remotely political maybe 2 or 3 others. I hate Trump, but I am respectful to my MAGA friends. Most of them have left FB. I believe most "conservative" people have gone back to physical community oriented lives.

That is, in the past few years I no longer have conversations with my opposites on FB because it makes it near-impossible through many subtle devices.

Here on Medium I have experienced what happens if I write something that runs afoul of the "rules". There are no specifics. No real policy. Certainly no due process. I'm not alone. Others have been telling of this problem for the past year but I didn't believe it until I experienced it myself. Medium is probably better than the others. Perhaps the best in allowing thoughtful free speech. But it too is following FB. How much government pressure is there? Not sure what's going on.

I believe the internet has changed. In each country it operates based on the lowest-common denominator. Intellectuals increasingly measure what they say, where they say it. They are careful when communicating on the Internet. They have no physical community so will NEVER be a base of power, as a group. They will move to the nations where they are most safe, as Russian intellectuals/high tech have done.

The Madness of Crowds has gone back to physical locations. The wisdom of the crowds is both there and on the internet. However, the extra wisdom of internet intellectuals won't seep into physical crowds because, as I pointed out above, all social networks now censor speech. Fact is, FB in the U.S. is no longer different than WeChat in China--just different topics that are hidden or users shadow-banned or outright banned.