People repeat things like that so that their story is consistent, to deceive themselves and sound convincing, like someone in court. Then when other people repeat the same misinformation it seems more likely to be true as the story gets passed around. If you’ve heard it more than once it’s more likely to be correct, right? Same old human nature / memory function combo. Just look at how people talk when they argue over the Disney vs the George version of the saga, since he’s the one true creator.