There are two theories that suggest humans pretty much revert when there are things in their environment that cause high levels of stress. One (by Avi Tuschman) suggests the problem starts with a drive for "in-breeding as opposed to out-breeding". As awful as that sounds, there are drives throughout the animal kingdom to keep their DNA clean from other species so their better adaptations don't get lost. The other (mine) suggests that anti-predation drives go into overdrive with stress and fear. These automatically push people to want autocratic leadership, more rather than less hierarchy in society, as well as pushing them to close their minds and think like the group (so they don't stick out and get eaten by a predator). Closed mindedness correlates very strongly with conservative thought, and both of these are easily elicited by FEAR.
Basically, I'd say the fool in the photo is frightened, at a very deep level, and ancient drives of lower animals have taken over.
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