I agree that things don't move in one direction all the time. Iran, for instance has certainly de-liberalized (although they might be re-liberalizing, fingers crossed). The overall trend in the past couple centuries seems to be towards tolerance, though. As an example, in most countries at least a quarter of people think being gay is okay [1]. 100 years ago, where on Earth could you have gotten 25 out of a hundred people to say that being gay is okay? Perhaps in Berlin in the 1920s, but no where else as far as I know.

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2013/06/04/the-global-div...