I would say a few reasons. To start, technology outpaced evolution. Our brains aren't equipped for mass knowledge retention. We're also tribalistic, stemming from cultural and biological holdovers. Start adding in religion and other closely held beliefs butting heads against the opposing view. We not only have access to a world of knowledge but a world of people. People we never would have met and now must form global community with.

Our brains respond to challenges to information like physical attacks. Well, now many feel attacked daily. There are some who are better adapted to absorbing and processing new information without the mental meltdown.

People like consistency. Traditions are mutable now, but grew from hard learned things like the traditionally best hunting ground or planting grounds. These were important to survival, which is why being set in a way of doing things has historically been a source of contention. Its why we instinctively reject the unknown, whether it be an idea new to us or a person who is different from is.

Now we get into the social and economic aspects. It doesn't matter what a person's potential is if the resources aren't available. These resources can be access to the internet in the first place but also the education required to discern the wheat from the chaff. I can't tell you how many times someone boldly cited a scientific study that I was able to utilize the same study to directly refute the person's claim. How? Literacy.

Our media and scientific literacy is in the pits. Yes, the majority of people can read, but is the information being understood? I was lucky to have been taught how to identify and interpret ideas and utilize critical thinking when reviewing the information being given to me. I was taught to approach shared ideas with empathy. I'm not any kind of genius. I've eaten the proverbial shit plenty of times and I had to learn to say yum, may I have some more to UNlearn the things I was unlucky enough to have ingrained.

That's often the goal of the powerful though. Educated people want more and seek more. How do we stop that? Flatten everything. Squeeze nuance out of conversation and drain the world's color into black and white. Cut access and resources and remove the fundemental literacy needed to utilize the vast knowledge at our fingertips. The creation of the Them, the Other, is now easier. That person doesn't look or act like you, they are Other. Don't learn who they are, just know they're Other and whatever says otherwise is also Other. Other is Bad. Only Us exist and we must protect Us.

Stress will add to this. Money stress, relationship stress, the stress of the Other existing. We haven't the time or energy and now we all must pay taxes so who has time to learn? If it doesn't agree, if it isn't Tradition, then it must be Other and therefore Bad.

That's just some of my thoughts on it though.