people like your wife deserve a whole nother article, because it helps to understand them, and the horrific damage they can collectively do.

1st, experience. No matter what you see on TV or read in the paper, injustice and oppression are just not real, they don't really exist, unless you've experienced them firsthand. that's just human nature. We all have some tendency to think that My Reality is Universal Reality.

2nd, empathy. It's typically not something you can learn. You're either born with it or you ain't. If you have it, then you can get some vicarious experience from the suffering of others.

3rd, tribal instinct. Some people are born with a blind reverence for- and confidence in- authority. Others, like you and i, are just the opposite. It's about the long-term survival of the tribe and it's written into the human genepool.