I tried not to state it in such harsh terms, but I agree. I think a much larger portion of the American right than the American left just functions as a pass-through for whatever thoughts and talking points are being pushed by the leading propagandists of their movement.
For example, picture a hypothetical future where a Black Panthers-style movement started arming and organizing blacks en masse, so they'd have the means for armed resistance against unjust police violence. And picture if Fox News, Breitbart, the NRA, etc., started to use race-baiting propaganda in order to strongly support certain gun controls, like registration and universal background checks, in light of that threat. And picture if, at the same time, the NAACP and ACLU started to push liberal anti-gun-regulation propaganda, in light of those guns empowering the racial underclass.
I think if that were to happen, there would be some gradual evolution of viewpoints among rank-and-file liberals. But among conservatives, I think you'd get a radical reversal of opinion in just a few short years, similar to what we saw with free trade agreements. I think they're that sensitive to propaganda aimed at them. Many of the same dudes with "cold dead hands" rhetoric today would be emphasizing the importance of giving police more ability to control the flow of guns, for the sake of "law and order."
It's not that far-fetched, either. Back when the original Black Panthers were publicly arming themselves in the face of white supremacist violence, the right did, in fact, get enthused about gun control. Both the NRA and Ronald Reagan (then governor of California) backed gun control, at the time.
