Yes, indeed. Well said.

Why do they do it? What motivates them into such mind-scrambling behaviour, and how did their own minds get this scrambled to begin with?

My interpretation is that these are persons with dependency needs -- who never matured into "self-differentiation" and therefore require a herd/group/mob led by an authority figure who claims to have all the answers.

Those supposed answers are the group narrative, with which they attempt to suffocate the rest of us. It must be adhered to 110% ya know....because any deviation puts their own survival at risk. Or so their subconscious mind believes. Of course FEAR helps to get them to believe this. And because they cannot count on themselves, they think....a whole lot of living becomes fear-drenched.

In other words, these totalitarian narratives are security blankets for persons who have not managed sufficient personal agency yet. Therefore they contract it out to megalomaniac leaders and con-artists who produce a formula for how to get through life safely. They promise! Part of the contract being that the sheep must hold everyone else to this formula too, in order for it to work.

Basically, these forced narratives are being used as survival mechanisms by the pushers.