JIm Jones and other cult leaders are popular because people can rely on them to do the thinking that they can’t face doing themselves.
For some people, the real world with all it’s complexities is ‘too much’ for some people to deal with and when someone comes along and promises to take care of them and sort things out for them, they (people, followers) usually end up being completely controlled, usually to the point where they end up dead.
I saw two documentaries and in one it mentioned how Jones was going down mentally and he was ready to take them (followers) with him.
Followers usually follow them to death because they have invested their entire psych and self in that person that they willingly go with them.
It kind of reminds one of that beast Hitler in the last days in his bunker.