[JumpCrisscross]

And if my grandmother had wheels she’d be a bicycle. The process of creating an in group naturally creates out groups. The “brainwashing” OP describes is just as natural as social alignment through an innate drive for conformity.

[cwmoore]

Conformity I think follows the innate drive to coerce the nonconformant into compliance

[JumpCrisscross]

Sure. Push and pull. The point is that needs effort to work at larger scales. We don’t “naturally” organize into nations of three hundred million or a billion. To the extent we do, we also “naturally” go to war.

[cwmoore]

Again, I think the rewards of controlling others explains both, and not whatever handwavy natural/unnatural attributes might be identified.

[pineaux]

There is a pretty interesting study of a large group of chimps. I dont remember where exactly but they have been civil warring the last 15 years or so. Point is, it seems that there is some kind of innate group formation process.