The number of people who step outside of this hierarchy is small and hence they do not have much power in enforcing the real truth to the people and then they become the laughing stock.
People often laugh at the truth. And who can blame them. For example if anyone would have said a few years ago that the Dogecoin will be above $0.30 USD in 2021 (or anytime), then most of us probably would have laughed. Even me.