Well I could use my personal experience to explain what I mean. I consider myself left wing, and I base that off my economic preferences. I'd probably be best described as centre left but I suppose it depends who you ask and what their definitions are, to some I'd be a dirty socialist, to others I'd be a capitalist apologist. However, I did reconsider my world view several years ago, and this process was prompted by some egregious things that I noticed from the left. I started to feel that I didn't share the same opinion or values as others on the left, and this led to me questioning whether I even was or should be left wing. This led me to exploring right wing ideology and listen to right wing media/broadcasters. Years later I largely ended up back at the starting point, at least economically. But it could have gone either way if I wasn't careful. I think there's a human desire to be on one side or the other. I definitely get and understand the temptation to join a team or tribe, and align yourself to that team. There were times a few years ago where I felt the desire to "leave" the left, whatever the feck that means, and "join" the right. Being in the middle, or feeling like you belong to no team, can be quite confusing and disconcerting. There's no "team middle", or "team left on some issues and right on other issues and no opinion on others", and you end up being in disagreement with all sides. And in politics, when people disagree with you, they tend to fecking hate you. Nobody chooses to be hated, so if there's a group that offer you acceptance, that is tempting for people. Likewise, if people fear rejection, then its tempting to tow the line and keep quiet on certain issues, for fear of being omitted from the group.
I don't think their should be any logical correlation between being left or right wing economically, and taking certain stances on the majority of social/cultural issues that are political footballs these days. I find the discussion about these topics to be tribalistic, and extremely complex and nuanced issues get reduced to "Nazi vs Blue hair faggot". I think the majority of these topics, the answer, if there is one correct answer, lies somewhere in the giant grey area between these two polar extremes. However in reality, there is an enormous correlation between people's economic preferences and their opinion on the latest social or cultural talking point. To some extent this is down to personality type, but that doesn't fully explain such a stark correlation for me, nor such a binary division, as there are multitudes of personality types. I think it's absolutely certain that people's world view and opinions are shaped in no small part by their experiences and interactions with others, and interactions with groups in particular. I also think the strongest emotional driver for people is fear and disgust (I'm fairly certain this is scientifically proven too) and so people are more likely to be influenced to oppose people they dislike, than they are to support people that they like. Obviously if your world view is already firmly established, you're less likely to be influenced. However, for younger people, or people whose world view isn't as firmly established, then they can more easily be redirected.
Edit: a little example that just came to me that is someone similar to your extinction rebellion reference. When I was maybe 13 or 14, I was with my Mum in the town centre of the small city I grew up in, and some activists were taking signatures for a petition against the expansion of the local airport. They stopped us and had nice chat with my Mum, and asked her to sign. My Mum politely said she wasn't sure and would have to think about it, because it could help the local economy and would mean less travel to an airport further away (thus reducing people's carbon footprint). The girl and guy ended up screaming insults at my Mum as we walked away. That experience really influenced me at the time, it was so weird and confusing and unsettling. To be honest I've never really looked into climate change or formed any opinion on it since (which is rare because I have an opinion on pretty much everything else). I'm sure that experience played a part in that, and has subconsciously put me off even looking into the topic.