The lies in this case start at the top, and are clearly intentionally untrue. That people farther away from the origin point come to believe these untrue thing

The lies in this case start at the top, and are clearly intentionally untrue. That people farther away from the origin point come to believe these untrue things does not make the original lies anything other than lies. On a small scale, it may be true that countering a mistaken belief with facts and reason is helpful--though a lot of research suggests that's not the case even one at a time--but on the large scale, lies must be called out as lies, and letting them stand leads only to repetition and widespread belief. Had there been a better job done of calling out and suppressing the lies at the stage they were still only lies, it's possible we would have much less mistaken belief. Also, the idea that most people are suffering from "mistaken belief" rather than being aware they are lies strikes me as naive, but that's a matter of opinion.