I think that part of the problem is that it's become much more socially acceptable to "other" someone or a group.

Part of that comes from it being easy to find those who will agree your view of some group as the "other" to start treating poorly, start to demonize and then in extreme cases act violently towards. "Other"ing a particular group can be used to justify attacks or other poor treatment.

Religion has always been something that has frequently lead to "other"ing, sometimes by the members of the religion and sometimes by those outside of it. I don't think it's because we're turning against religion more, so much as we're just "other"ing different groups and religion is an easy way to identify a group of "others".

I think that the change is being caused less by people turning against religion, and more by our increased societal tendency towards "other"ing different groups to find someone to fight against. Somehow the internet has reduced peoples tolerance for differences and increased their appetite for finding a group to blame for their problems.

What's the difference between a buddhist and a non-buddhist? The non-buddhist thinks there's a difference.

I think it's important to remember that we're all human and we all have more in common than we have differences. We're all capable of "other"ing a group. We'd all like to be able to explain the problems of the world in simple terms. We're all capable of seeing a different group as less than our group, but in reality we are all humans, and our problems aren't caused by some "other", they're caused by people who are more like us than they are different from us.

Inside all of us, if we allow ourselves to see a different group as "other" than us, it can lead to some horrible extreme actions. If we try to remember that the person who we're "other"ing is just another human being experiencing the world in a different way, it can help us feel more kindly towards them.