[techfeathers]

I don’t understand the like strategy/politics of lying. Sure I never thought they were going to cut 2 trillion dollars from the budget, but why tell the truth about it now?

[toomuchtodo]

There are no consequences for lying, so you lie to lever up into the authority and power you're seeking. Once you walk it back, there is no impact, at this level you're not getting fired for lying. You're re-calibrating expectations to reality after you've accomplished your goal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandolini%27s_law

[techfeathers]

Well, except in this case, don’t they actually want to cut a shot ton maybe even $2 trillion from the budget? This is the kind of lie where Musk doesn’t care and everyone else does but he just said it to get Trump elected. I think Musk wants this, no?

[rsynnott]

Ah, well, you see, the true believers will simply rewrite history; there was never any lie at all! For instance see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42647171 . Informed people knew it was a lie from the start (there not being $2bn discretionary spending to cut). The average Trump voter will never hear about this retreat. That's most of the major groups covered. Thus, there are no consequences to this sort of obvious lie.

[MattGaiser]

He's not confessing, but bragging.

[techfeathers]

What’ s he bragging about the fact he’s not going to be successful? Or bragging about the fact he can lie?