That is one perspective, here is another...
Many people have been hurt, used, abused, rejected, lost. Looking for acceptance and a sense of belonging, they are susceptible to manipulations that promise to give them the care, acceptance, a home, and the support they crave.

We all have a history, a story, and until that is understood then...who am I to judge?

@Betty That makes sense too, tho it does sort of overlap with my theory, in that both of those same groups of people, involve being dependent and vulnerable, so they are easy prey for manipulation. And I guess I have never been that desperate and alone, that I would sell out and give up my values and morality, just to have those things from a group, but no one can ever truly know themselves, until they've been tempted and tested, same as it is with having power...

@TomMcGiverin I agree. There are many combinations of personalities and their reactions..., needs, wants, and desires are moulded by their life experiences, acquired knowledge and social circles. There is a spectrum with a range that includes both positive and negative, cognitively, psychologically, and emotionally that will determine the extent of vulnerability to manipulation.

There has always been a percentage of the population susceptible to manipulation, extortion, and coercion and opportunists can spot them a mile away.

@Betty Yup, and both demagogue pols like Trump and charlatan preachers, can spot them a mile away.

Realer is a totally cromulent and embiggened word.

What I looked up says "realer" is incorrect.

One-syllable adjectives

The reason "stricter diets" is better is that for one-syllable adjectives like strict, the comparative is formed by adding –er, rather than with the word more. This is why it is correct to say, “She is older than her brother,” and incorrect to say, “*She is more old than her brother.”

Of course there are exceptions to this rule. For example, the comparative forms for the one-syllable adjectives real, right, and wrong are more real, more right, and more wrong (not realer, righter, or *wronger ). And the adjectives good, bad, and far have the irregular comparative forms better, worse, and farther/further.