out-group

The trick is to signal personal preference, not signal out-group contempt, which is kind of a trigger for some people.

They are both cultural in-group, out-group constructs, they just happen to be different constructs rather than synonyms.

Humans are social animals that form into groups and groups need in-group out-group signaling to define themselves.

There is a great deal of emotional investment in the idea that some out-group is benefitting heavily without contributing back.

Or, more precisely, how do you know she is in the out-group?

Uber - who will actively communicate cooperatively with their in-group, but actually compete against the out-group, depending upon whether or not their host companies decide to cooperate or not.

Mainly in-group/out-group bias (for instance nationality, or brand allegiance) or avoiding cognitive dissonance (If I accept your point, that means I have to change my view of the world to a more uncomfortable position).

We had the chance, as a programmer subculture, to leave this ridiculous and arbitrary in-group/out-group stuff behind, but instead we embraced it and turned it up to eleven.

Yet you can easily find people's horrible behavior being supported in more hugbox-style forums, when they get into an in/out-group fight and all the niceties go out the window for the sake of victimhood.

Ultimately, setting a standard form of a language ends up devolving into Lowth style shibboleths designed to create an in-group and an out-group usable as a basis for discrimination but not necessarily useful for communication.

This model is very good at rewarding the in-group and punishing the out-group, often by a winner-take-all tyranny of the majority, but it's ineffective and inefficient at actually getting things done or satisfying the voting public overall.

I think the dichotomy you refer to is illusory." I believe this indicates that you think all collections of people are "groups" regardless of the way that they formed, the size and any notion of in-group out-group membership status.