We know they are lying.
They know they are lying.
They know that we know they are lying.
We know that they know we know they are lying.
And still they continue to lie.
— Alexander Solzhenitsyn
And here’s a variation on the theme that seems to have a reliable source. The quote below can be found on page 181 of the book:
The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them. ― Elena Gorokhova, author, A Mountain of Crumbs
Both of the above authors (Solzhenitsyn and Elena Gorokhova) may have developed their sayings based on an old Soviet joke which reads like the following:
The authorities pretend they are paying wages, workers pretend they are working.
Alternatively, So long as the bosses pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work. (via Wikipedia).
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