I mentioned I worked most of my career in a "spin world". Early on, I bought into the spin, all the projections and promises. I thought they were great. That couldn't last of course because none of them were met, ever. It was just opiate for the masses. The company spent huge sums on various and sundry failed projects, I'm talking billions. And while the spin sounded exciting to the inexperienced, after a while seasoned folks could just run the numbers and see "Hey, this isn't going to happen." And it never did, never, not once.
I was directly involved in one of those efforts and got into considerably trouble for pointing out the obvious. My boss' boss told me to zip it, even though he knew what I was writing was dead on the Truth. There were PTBs behind this effort at a much higher level than me, and TRUTH did not matter, spin mattered, and perception.
That project ingloriously disappeared about two years later. No epitaph, no analysis, not "what went wrong", it just disappeared. And the Senior VP who "led" it got promoted. I wasted about four years of my career on the absurdity of it. It was technically interesting, so there was that.
There was another smaller project that was being reviewed and our head of the patent division asked me to come with him. I think everyone in the room was 4-6 levels above me. I planned to sit quietly and listen to what I KNEW would be rosy burfle, and it was, but the patent guy after one of the VPs claimed to have a great patent protection on the project turned to me and asked "Is that true?". I just said "No." It wasn't remotely true. There was this silence in the room for about 5 seconds and then someone else picked up the "discussion" as if nothing happened. I realized he had brought me along knowing what would happen.
Sure enough in about a year that stupid project also died. I don't know how they stay in business.
The message is Life is Tough, and it gets tougher if you believe in Fairy Tales instead of the Cold Hard Truth. It also pays to keep your mouth shut at times.