“All of this serves a crucial purpose that dictators learn over time: it's a loyalty test that sorts people you can trust from people you can't. If people are willing to publicly embarrass themselves by spouting obviously absurd lies about the "Dear Leader" then they're more likely to be worthy of the regime's trust.

A henchman who parrots absurdities is a henchman worth investing in. The problem, though, is that eventually those myths surrounding the leader become commonplace in society, so nobody is going out on a limb to repeat them.

The solution? Invent crazier myths, constantly testing people… to see who goes along with it and who doesn't. That strategy creates a ratcheting effect: if the lies don't get more extreme, your loyalty tests become useless. It appears that dictators' thirst for absolute control is warping their minds, when it's often just a sharpening of their strategies. Power didn't corrupt them. They learned to be good at being bad.”