I think there's a '3' here: Science and evidence-based thinking are (relatively) orthogonal to the emergence of social chaos and conflict. If I'm not mistaken

I think there's a '3' here: Science and evidence-based thinking are (relatively) orthogonal to the emergence of social chaos and conflict. If I'm not mistaken this is implied in Marxist thinking, so it is an idea that is 'out there' (in the sense of being available). I think the idea there is that our rational thinking largely serves as justification rather than being something very powerful on its own. The way I see it is that (at least much of) rational thought is the latest stage in 'elaboration' of lower-level mental/emotional processes. In which case, our rational thinking on subjects which impact real circumstances in which we're invested will be constrained and influenced by our goals, values, and something like coefficients for strength of influence of various emotions etc.