What the article describes is not a new phenomenon, but just another incarnation of an anthropological pattern wherein behavioural feedback loops act to enforce

What the article describes is not a new phenomenon, but just another incarnation of an anthropological pattern wherein behavioural feedback loops act to enforce ever-more rigorous standards of social, cultural or ideological "hygiene". Throughout history people have competed to be the most puritan adherents of their particular sect. As recently as the Victorian age, the middle classes engaged in an internecine competition to adhere to ever more obscure and asburd formal standards and rituals that were justified on the basis of ethics and what was considered "proper" in civilised society. If the 20th century was characterised by a gradual relaxation, at least in the West, of those socially demanded standards of dress, attitude and behaviour, it's perhaps unsurprisingly that, eventually, the needle would begin to swing the other way. People will, of course, find ways to justify these new standards on the grounds of impartial ethics and rationalism in the same way people in the past justified them on divine action and the gospels. Such cults of cultural hygiene can be relatively harmless, except to the social standing of those who choose not to participate. However, in the event that true believers gain real power, they can be extremely dangerous to those same persons. History does not instill much confidence that this is something humanity has grown beyond.