What I mean is that I get the general ideological beliefs behind the cultural revolution, but how did so much chaos occur in the first place, backed by both the party and a lot (even if not the majority) of people?

Obviously there was the famine after the GLF and a general sense of paranoia politically given both that and the conflict between China and basically all of its (major) neighbors like india, the USSR, and the capitalist east Asian countries along with American meddling in the area.

However, reading about it honestly reminds me a lot of the French revolution (not 1:1 Obviously, just a general feel of chaos and intensity and paranoia and such), but it had been 16 years since the liberation of China.

So my question basically boils down to why both the party and a lot of people were so willing to engage in the cultural revolution.