I have often wondered about how one kind of evolved brain could hold so many contrary options about the same things given the same senses and facts. Why is one person’s brain socially minded and another not so. I think the underlying ways in which assumptions are laid down in human thinking is one of the reasons when crisis hits so many can be relied upon to become fascist.
Children are taught and there is no doubt at all that opinions can be taught because the assumptions they are formed upon are never questioned. It is also a matter of argument which strands of thought are taught, but not that we have set pathways in our brains. Meaning that once we are taught a certain response to an idea, that response remains a constant. It takes a lot of planning to alter the direction of a road once it had been built. People who think their ways out of their childhood teachings are few and far between and highly intelligent.
Then there are the responses that are natural to our animal behaviour, including the ones that say we are not animals. The need to be supreme in our own eyes, part of a set way of doing things, part of a community.
When you take all these together you begin to see why human beings congregate into nations and why nations vie with each other. You begin to understand why sports exist, why we need leaders and how easy it is to despise each other.
None of thee things are rational but they all have a rationale.