There is a “clever” personality type, I’ve had several in my life, that become more susceptible to propaganda and myths when they are presented as some kind of secret insider knowledge or a way to get a leg up on what the general public knows.
Like our climate discussion group in my old hometown fell apart when one of the more driving members suddenly switched overnight to the “well actually it’s not gonna be a problem because peak oil is coming soon and that’s gonna be a bigger problem” myth. That was 20 years ago and no, climate change by far was the way bigger driver of calamities during those two decades. Keeeping his focus on that would’ve been much more important and saved more lives and also [the solution to climate change] includes leaving it in the ground which includes becoming less oil-dependent which also addresses peak oil automatically whereas the peak oil hysteria didn’t come with a solution beyond sky-is-falling hysteria fueling a carter-doctrine style “oil interests” panic grab at immense cost in human lives.
When a lie is being presented as an obvious truth, it can still fool a lot of folks. But to a certain “clever” kind of personality, a lie that’s presented as a secret truth becomes much more convincing. When it’s wrapped in “well actually” trivia. When it’s “if you memorize this fact you’ll know something most people don’t know”, that becomes tasty to them even when that fact is an outright lie.