What I think has changed is the scale and speed of it. In the past, your tribe was your village, your church, your union hall. The social punishment for breaking taboos was local and you could see it coming. Now your tribe is global and algorithmically amplified. You can lose your job, your reputation, and your relationships with people you’ve never met based on a single statement taken out of context. So yeah, the human tendency is ancient. But the machinery we’ve built to enforce it is unprecedented.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​