I... whut the...These people are absolutely, utterly insane in a James Bond super villian only dumb as toast sort of way...
My literary/cultural point of reference is the story “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. I remember reading this story as a kid and thinking how could people be this stupid. I had to live about 50 years to find out the answer to this question. The author of this story must have been one pretty smart dude.