The scary thing is that it's about the group as opposed to people not in the group. This tribalism is nothing but scary.

It can be, yes.

But it's often patriotism that is seen as what enabled things like the congressional Republicans in the Nixon era to authorize the special investigations which brought him down.

That's only one example - there are plenty of others where an individual puts the interest of the group ahead of themselves. That isn't always a bad thing: the alternative is the tyranny of the strong, where the strongest individual has the most say.

I could also care about justice and people in general regardless of race or nationality or where they live.

Snowden comes to mind.