I got into it with a gun humper on another site; which can be an echo chamber of stupidity...

[patphil]

6. People like that are not comfortable with rational thinking.

It's far easier for them to accept the "truth" from a source that tells them what they want to hear.
To me they're playing the role of brain dead zombies. They're easy prey for far right leaders that take advantage of their inability to engage in critical thinking, and use them as a club to beat on whoever they want to harm...either politically, socially, religiously, or physically.
As you said, someone else puts a face on their problems, stokes their fears into anger and rage, and points them like a gun at whomever they want to attack.