The way to win at manipulating people is to provide a simple, incorrect assumption for people to jump to, and then make sure that the truth is so complicated and convoluted that people either won't be able to put all the threads together and understand it or they will simply gravitate toward the lie out of sheer intellectual laziness. This works because the truth is usually complicated and people who are interested in the truth are unlikely to fight back with simple narratives that are untrue. I say this as someone who is interested in the truth and has observed that in the public eye bullshit almost always seems to win. Bullshit wins because the truth is challenging to comprehend and the liars are offering you easy answers.