Can you ever leave high school? Do humans ever grow up?

Have you experienced a situation where gossip really hurt someone? What happened? What was the situation, and how did gossip hurt the person?

More importantly, what was the culture of the group or community that allowed this to happen?

I’ve been watching something like this, and I’ve seen people drubbed out of the community over and over. A kind of sameness of opinion starts to develop. It kind of reminds me of high school, or maybe the playground, but older people are doing it. Maybe it is inevitable amongst social animals.