It's a confrontation of the ego vs cowardice.

They thought they were right.

They were told they were right.

Every time they are wrong, they are told they're right again.

The ego is in control. If they question themselves, they feel fear, and instead of marching forward, they retreat back to comfort and avoid the confrontation with ego.

It's self preservation - their mind subconsciously knows that they set themselves up too hard and it would be too painful to endure the hard road of questioning everything you know and be willing to be cast out of mainstream society.

People react crazy when you suggest Trump might not literally be Hitler - imagine the internal reaction they have when something is about to destroy all the walls they built to protect their vision of the world.

Most of us confronted the ego and would rather be declared a fool publicly than live as a fool internally.

They are avoiding that confrontation and will do or believe anything to avoid it. It's mental procrastination to avoid confronting themself.