I don't think they actually literally think it's real, I just think it's an excuse to oppress people they hate.
 
Same thing happened with the Satanic Panic in the 1980s; groundbreaking research in the 1970s on child sex abuse found that the perpetrators, contrary to popular opinion, were pillars of society - church officials, business owners, suburban football coaches. The Satanic Panic was a backlash against that and an excuse to victimize marginalized people.