Humans feel the need to justify their evil, though. When a populists rises to power and decides to target a minority, he does not openly say, "let us go bully t

Humans feel the need to justify their evil, though. When a populists rises to power and decides to target a minority, he does not openly say, "let us go bully those people". He justifies himself as the one standing on sound moral ground and he comes up with a reason for why that minority are evil people. So for you, an outsider, you see a guy being a jerk and his followers loving him for it. But his followers are not seeing him as a jerk. They see him as their champion who is leading them in a war of good against evil. It is all relative.