When Nikolai had protested that the people would understand what had been done, when one leader spoke and acted so much like the last, Krotov had told him the state was not interested in whether people believed its lies. The state was not looking for plausible deniability. A good lie could always be punctured, with enough work. No, Krotov had said—all they needed was implausible deniability. A lie the population would see through immediately but would have to pretend they believed. Even to themselves. Making themselves believe the bad lie made them complicit. And no one would dare speak the
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