Hijacked by bad ideas seems to be just about right.  Some of the more recent research on political psychology suggests individuals with a tendency toward authoritarianism can be pretty reasonable under many conditions but these latent traits get activated under threat.  Much of it seems pretty obvious; increased jingoism, us-them polarizing, and desire for authoritarian characters to right the ship.  But some research also shows these individuals sliding into conspiratorial and magical thinking (explanations as to why vary).  It's disheartening, for sure, and we can only hope eventually a Hegelian synthesis can emerge rather than RWA types going further down the rabbit holes.

And thanks, Peter, for clueing me in to Dr. Ehrman's work.  It was interesting to do a deeper dive on the wresting not only of the tonal shifts in Revelations but also the reconciling of the two forms of Jesus.