My theory is that it's less that they're truly dumb as fuck, but rather that they're not particularly special -- or does that make them dumb as fuck, LOL? -- and there's almost a dunning-kruger like effect. They see how powerful they are, able to act with near-impunity, and they don't realize how much of that has to do with whatever distribution of power and hesitance to use state violence exists in the flawed but democracy-ish systems they're currently dominating.