Also, Putin Puffers generally have an Authoritarian Personality (a personality type characterized by a disposition to treat authority figures with unquestioning obedience and respect) coupled with hearty doses of racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and xenophobia. Add to that brew social isolation and a general inability to thrive in 21st Century America, and you have the mental contortions and reality distortions that make fealty to the likes of Trump and Putin possible.

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" -Isaac Asimov