I would include myself in that "liberal/lefty" group. I saw that several of the comments made prior to mine were blaming calculated conservative manipulation, and I wanted to point out that the misconceptions are also arising naturally on "our side" out of desire to promote compliance and optimism.

I didn't expect this issue to become political until I observed it happening. The political aspects of the issue have to be addressed, including the assumption that made-up facts can be benign if they're spoken by the right people with the right intentions.