Houstonian Driving Behaviors & Etiquette

I'm a transplant from the Midwest with a 4 year stint in Colorado, now celebrating my 4th year in Houston and I'm ready to beat this poor dead horse:

1) Why is do people take such offense to horn honking, a quick flick of the brights, or the finger [I don't personally] – (for obvious offenses like sitting on their phone at green lights, sitting in the left lane [obviously not referring to rush hour], driving with their lights off after dusk, etc)

2) Then why are said folks then statistically more prone [in the south – Forbes] to answer to said alert with violence / malace down here?

There are a lot of great things like: everyone accepts their fate while merging and lets people in (cause we're all screwed anyways) and the zipper merge actually works (???)

Huge mental health decline in recent times? Distracted driving through the roof? Did covid f**k everybody up? Are different states just more used to getting the finger?

Perspective -I'd put myself in the 5% of people that enjoy driving.

To rule out the whataboutisms: I don't mean waiting to make sure red light runners don't smack you, or not staying right except to pass cause the highway is fucked anyways.