"I know we asserted a principled stance against smoking, but we now live above a tobacconist!"

You could also say that when rumors did spread back in Mill's day (or before), they were harder to correct as quickly. As an example Cervantes spends a whole chapter in Don Quixote Part II arguing against the inauthenticity of a false sequel.

Times have changed, but the bar must remain high to dismiss centuries of political synthesis and struggle, based on a few new conditions.