People engage in political dishonesty to pursue their goals. It's not surprising. It's just like many well-informed feminists parroting deceiving statistics like "70 cents on the dollar" to claim that women aren't getting "equal pay for equal work" when they know it's not true. They know the disparity is largely due to choices made by individual men and women, plus the time consuming nature of child bearing, but they want government action to mandate equal outcomes. And there is a thoughtful argument to be made for such action. But they think they can better sell the idea by claiming pay discrimination.

Understanding and engaging with the underlying motivations of the opinion leaders is going to be more effective than just demonizing or ridiculing the people who follow them.