I believe that except in the cases where people are very young / naive / impressionable, they are indoctrinated, and therefore truly ignorant of the evil they are mentally embracing.
Because this is so effective a method, this is why we see these monsters seeking absolute control over educational systems, the war against parental rights, and demonic materials promoting sex, homosexuality, transsexuality to very little children.
This much we all know, but this example also speaks to the question of “are they just brainwashed, or are they just evil,” with respect to those coordinating this strategy - and strategy it is. You have to acknowledge intent here, and once you do, the answer is that parties to this endeavor are evil.
If good is a thing, then so is evil. These are real things, not sentiments. They determine thoughts, which then can influence actions, which then manifest the good or evil in the world, etc.
It’s difficult to be a human being. We have an existential reality that exceeds our intellectual grasp to actually understand it.
Evil has many ways into our psyche, through self doubt, delusion, etc., so poor mental health is a fertile ground for evil to grow in.
Pretty much all my life I’ve been struggling to understand these matters, and studied Western and Asian philosophy pretty extensively, for an intellectual midget.
Here’s an interesting tid bit. There is a text called Budo Training in Aikido, by Morihei Ueshiba, written really as a manual for his top students, pre WWII. He was an extraordinary individual. Shinto was perhaps the most dominant early religious influence on him. At any rate, here is one of his admonishments to his students:
Self-delusion or doubt
to an evil way
will lead
to the spiritual horse
give no rein