I’m upvoting you because we should raise visibility of people calling this out. But I hate that we tend to call these people stupid (myself included).

They are calculating and outright authoritarian/fascist in agenda, and find psychological weak points with the gullible masses: “Think of the Children” “Think of the Scammers” " Think of your taxes!" People who either don’t have the mental accumen, lack of education, lack of experience, or lack the time to apply those because they are struggling with life tend to give these things a pass or just buy into the messaging outright.

It’s manipulative and it’s “clever” in it’s own way to constantly apply ratcheting pressure rightward. Calling them dummies obfuscates just how insidious and evil it truly is. Mocking them doesn’t work if people assume these people are a joke that will never accomplish their goal…