There are far too many people who believe "they" want to enslave us, kill us, use lasers from space to burn hawaii so they can buy up cheap land, inject us with nanites to turn is unti 5G antennas, etc..
I am convinced that a large chunk of the population is so used to being told that the world is ending that they just make up the worse things they can to explain a situation that keeps them angry and afraid.
When the villagers respond to every cry the boy makes of wolf, they start seeing wolves everywhere.