In more concrete and practical terms, the body (our senses) create a certain kind of impression to us and tempt us to react in a specific way. That is what was personified into a demon (daemon) or "satan" by ancient people. This personification of our body's impulses into an evil daemon that seeks to lead people astray is alright knowing the lack of resources and the level of reasoning they had. But these two elements have evolved over the years (and it's been a thousand years now) and I think it is ridiculous and naive to only use the thousand years old information and not use your current abilities and available ressources to find detailed information about the matter.
Part of us is animal, part of us is not. One is enslaving, the other one is freeing.
The sheeps of this world are mostly "animals". Hedonists seeking to find pleasure in the world and avoid pain. And to maintain this state of pleasure. And how can you maintain a state of pleasure ? All it takes to ruin someone's state of pleasure is few words. Which is why nowadays we are seeing the creation of "safe spaces" in the west. When you utter a word that such people disagree with, you are not just expressing disagreement, you are actually ruining their scheme of life which consist of sustaining a pleasurable state of existing. So the overreacting response and the outrage and what not is understandable.
There is also the religious sheeps, those who heard about a deity to whom they can pray for more pleasure and benefits in their life, good health, longevity, safety, prosperity, sexual fulfillment, children.....And gain emotional comfort and get rid of fear of death.
For the hedonist, the quality of one's life is determined by how much emotionally fulfilled one is. The quantity of pleasure. For those who cannot find pleasure in the rest of the world, those are unfortunate. The hedonist thinks life is unfair. It's not. Pain and pleasure are two faces of the same coin. Unexpressed hate is painful and expressed hate is pleasurable. Unexpressed lust is painful and expressed lust is pleasurable. This course of action (from unexpressed to expressed) that is forced on people is intentional. And it is enslaving and it completely kills one's existence (which consists of the "free" will). You become the animal in you and you will do what animals do, to only be moved by emotions. And slightly smarter people will manipulate you with their emotionally charged discourse and you will join movements and embrace a self-fulfilling cause.
Their only principal is: "if it makes you happy, I don't see no problem with it". And we can witness nowadays how the bar is being pushed and self-fulfilling things are being justified and made into laws, and made popular through so called "influencers": musicians, actors and so on....
Everything can be broken down reasonably.
No conspiracy theories needed.
But like a wise man once said, waste no more time arguing what a good man should be......be one!