Ditto... although being ill-informed can't help either.

I once heard a certain political figure speak at a university. He said that when he gave speeches in areas in which the majority supported his political party, explaining what problems he was trying to solve, they would simply react as a supportive audience - but when he gave speeches in areas where his party was unpopular, they also approved of him, saying that they were horrified and angry because nobody had ever told them about this problem before. He concluded by saying that a Republican is a Democrat who doesn't know what's going on.

More disturbingly, giving someone a list of falsehoods often causes people to later remember them as being true. (See also this Eliezer post.)