How knitters got knotted in a purity spiral | A process of moral outbidding is corroding small communities from within

Great article, although I feel like it could have been pared down to the main topic instead of spending 7 paragraphs explaining and providing examples of purity spirals, but I'm sure the information is useful if you aren't already familiar with the topic.

I can really identify with the section of this piece that talks about the final phase of a purity spiral, when not actively brandishing your virtue is crime enough to get you tar and feathered. To me it feels as if human tribes have nearly perfected ingroup-outgroup cultural warfare, to the extent that even online knitting groups use Maoist ideological purification tactics as a normal process for affecting change.

I've become extremely suspicious of anything approaching normative ideology as a result of seeing this unfold in community after community, and I try not to engage with ideologues (in the Marxist sense) anymore, the good:harm ratio just doesn't seem worth it.