I suspect the answer lies in the method by which people saw the question. Like, if you went up to people standing in line at a bank, or outside a concert or soemthing and pulled out a paper-based photograph and said "I saw this yesterday, what could it be?" you'd get the answers you were probably expecting. (As to the actual quesiton, yeah I dunno)

But if you post contrails on a website and say something to the effect of look at these contrails, then all the contextual clues you've given so far are the same that have been used by a lot of Qanon and other batshit crazy people who recently decided a demented orange rapist was equivalent to Jesus for them. I'm just saying it's a totally different context from what you were probably intending.

That's my guess as to "why" people saw it through a lens of "politics". Less about actual scientific content, more about media theory.