For better or worse, the basis of lots of beliefs boil down to “My authority figure says X and I trust my authority figure to be right, so I believe X”—and it can end up taking an awful lot of evidence to modify a belief like this. If you say that X is wrong, you’re declaring that you’re equal to the authority figure—and, as you’re obviously not, you’re not going to be believed.
For better or worse, the basis of lots of beliefs boil down to “My authority figure says X and I trust my authority figure to be right, so I believe X”—and it can end up taking an awful lot of evidence to modify a belief like this. If you say that X is wrong, you’re declaring that you’re equal to the authority figure—and, as you’re obviously not, you’re not going to be believed.