Telling someone in a seemingly hopeless situation that there is a high probability that things will get better because their imaginary friend is more powerful than the machinations of a despotic state is actually preferable to telling them that there's no imaginary friend and nobody is coming to save them. It's a common enough theme in prison camp survival autobiographies.

The so-called "logical" thing to tell them in this hypothetical scenario is not the optimal thing, so maybe it's not the most logical thing to say/do.

>their imaginary friend is more powerful than the machinations of a despotic state

This is the sort of thing that makes a lot of sense if you have an imaginary friend but sounds a little deranged if you don't.

The thing is, I know that you are not that kind of übermen. Because übermen don't waste their valuable time on Hacker News :).

I don't think it takes a special kind of person to not be comforted by the imaginary when facing an uncaring machine ready to devour them.