however there's a good comment in response which I'd like to reproduce
To call this claim deceptive is an understatement No. It is not deceptive at all. The people who wrote it know that it is false, and they know that most of the people who read it will know that it is false, and they know that most of the people who read it will know that they know that it is false. The purpose of the claim is to provide cover for its authors to do what they want. It just provides plausible deniability in that any time someone objects to government policy, the government can point to this statement (which nobody believes) knowing that the critic cannot establish proof of what everyone knows, that it wasn't a serious claim in the first place. George W Bush is a master of this game. It's why he never admits to being wrong. The philosopher Harry Frankfurt wrote a book about statements like this. It's called On Bull**.
To call this claim deceptive is an understatement
No. It is not deceptive at all. The people who wrote it know that it is false, and they know that most of the people who read it will know that it is false, and they know that most of the people who read it will know that they know that it is false.
The purpose of the claim is to provide cover for its authors to do what they want. It just provides plausible deniability in that any time someone objects to government policy, the government can point to this statement (which nobody believes) knowing that the critic cannot establish proof of what everyone knows, that it wasn't a serious claim in the first place. George W Bush is a master of this game. It's why he never admits to being wrong.
The philosopher Harry Frankfurt wrote a book about statements like this. It's called On Bull**.
I'm sure, if more Chinese buy Cif to scrub clean their wood rice bowls in that nasty Yangzte River, current balances will be restored. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
