There is a social-psychological aspect to this as well. I saw a presentation a few years ago by a sociologist who had been doing surveys over a thirty year period on what matters to an individual's sense of personal identity and found that, years ago, the primary factors were area of the country lived in, employment, and religion, though not necessarily in that order. Now, public policy choices have edged out religion as a factor in identity-construction. So, things like "enthusiasm for/ hostility to public transportation" would likely have been irrelevant to a person's sense of 'who I am' thirty years ago, whereas now it might be more important than, say, "do I think hell exists?"
And when something is core to "who I am," they tend to care about it more than you might otherwise expect.