Note that this was written 30 years ago based on observations of people in the literary community. At the time cultural relativism had become very big in academ

Note that this was written 30 years ago based on observations of people in the literary community. At the time cultural relativism had become very big in academia, and would grow and peak in the general liberal population over the next decade. I think what he said was a fair assessment of that microcosm. They were very interested in learning about other cultures and were fairly unique in their wanting to hold all cultures equally, although non-charitably that was often obtained by adopting a filtered rose-colored view of other cultures. However, Brin was overestimating how much of what he saw was a reflection of general western or US population vs his particular microcosm at the time. And it didn't hold in the long run. Political and social dogmatism is quite high now across the political spectrum in the US. Looking back, the idea that this form of cultural relativism came about because we were a melting-pot culture doesn't hold up well given it was only popular for a decade or two out of our country's 250ish years of history.