recommend reading the whole thing, but here's a good pull quote (emphasis mine)

In trying to combat the P&G slander with nothing more than irrefutable facts proving it false, I was operating under a set of false assumptions. Among these:

• I assumed that the people who claimed to believe that Procter & Gamble supported the Church of Satan really did believe such a thing.
• I assumed that they were passing on this rumor in good faith— that they were misinforming others only because they had, themselves, been misinformed.
• I assumed that they would respect, or care about, or at least be willing to consider, the actual facts of the matter.
• Because the people spreading this rumor claimed to be horrified/angry about its allegations, I assumed that they would be happy/relieved to learn that these allegations were, indisputably, not true.

All of those assumptions proved to be false. All of them. This was at first bewildering, then disappointing, and then, the more I thought about it, appalling— so appalling that I was reluctant to accept that it could really be the case.

But it is the case. Let’s go through that list again. The following are all true of the people spreading the Procter & Gamble rumor:

• They didn’t really believe it themselves.
• They were passing it along with the intent of misinforming others. Deliberately.
• They did not respect, or care about, the actual facts of the matter, except to the extent that they viewed such facts with hostility.
• Being told that the Bad Thing they were purportedly upset about wasn’t real only made them more upset. Proof that the 23rd largest corporation in America was not in league with the Devil made them defensive and very, very angry.

from https://redsails.org/false-witnesses/