[dragonwriter]

> Maybe a more important factor is that we're increasingly putting OURSELVES into boxes

Tribal identity is also not new. If there is anything new, it is the existence of a situation where identity tribes can be maintained while being geographically diffuse and intermixed with other identity tribes, which makes it less likely for conflict between identity groups to be quickly resolved to a more stable state by the losing group being excluded from a geographically region with residual members being expelled, forcibly converted or voluntarily assimilated into the locally dominant group, or killed.

Arguably, this is in many ways an improvement, though it does make ongoing inter-group invective worse.