Not a new phenomenon, of course, but it's nice to know that the problems of groupthink on the Internet are being seriously considered.

Francis Fukuyama perfectly expresses the difference between freedom and democracy:

... the desire to live in a modern society and to be free of tyranny is universal, or nearly so ... each year [millions of people] move from the developing to the developed world, where they hope to find the political stability, job opportunities, health care, and education that they lack at home.

But this is different from saying that there is a universal desire to live in a liberal society - that is, a political order characterised by a sphere of individual rights and the rule of law. The desire to live in a liberal democracy is ... acquired over time, often as a byproduct of successful modernisation ...