Authoritarian followers do not introspect, and they compartmentalise their beliefs to sustain contradiction. They are quick to forget the insults and failures of the dear leader, who tends to be deep into dark triad territory and is knowingly exploiting their collective frailty.

I don't really have any plausible explanation

Far too many people want simple (and therefore simplistic) answers to complex problems.

And that's exactly what populists offer them.

Of course, in the real world, complex problems never have simple solutions that actually work.

And, usually, those simple solutions cause more problems than they solve.