Every online community, active since 2016, has an orthodoxy, a specific set of beliefs and practices. If you don’t adhere to that orthodoxy, you are rejected. The political left and right are the same in this regard. And now this principle seems to apply to every online community that I am aware of. This is how the election of Donald Trump changed online communities, all over the world wide web.

The election of Donald Trump, and the events that followed, shocked every online community that I am aware of into a very specific orthodoxy. Anyone that does not adhere to that orthodoxy is no longer welcome. Trump’s election was the trumpet blast that destroyed tolerance.

For those who were inclined to be intolerant, the election of Donald Trump made that intolerance socially acceptable. For those who were inclined to be tolerant, the election of Donald Trump drove them from tolerance, to intolerance.

Trump’s election didn’t signal a change in beliefs, but it very clearly changed the way we all deal with beliefs that differ from our own, especially in our online communities.