> That they are willing to do violence in behalf of their actual con man
> oppressor is bizarre

It's called Sado-Populism --- once you've disengaged their critical faculties, they're lost to sense. We get the same over here (Herself has said "They've drunk the Kool Aid" twice this afternoon), but thankfully without guns.

First rule of Extremism Club: Turn the rabble against your worst enemy: the intellectuals.