People believe what they want to believe. When reality turns out to not match their expectation, they quietly drop out of the conversation, without admitting they misjudged things.
Best example of that is to take a look at HN in 2022 when Musk announced the Twitter takeover. A good half of the comments were quoting Voltaire and Snowden and applauding Musk for 'protecting free speech'. The other half saw it for what it was. When Musk stories come up now, there is no one still pushing the free speech angle.
Most people everywhere generally believe what their social reference group tells them to believe. Human nature, I guess.