I agree that you heard them say that but just because someone is talking doesn’t mean they are being truthful.

That could be said about anyone at any time about anything. To me that's just hand waving away somebody else's opinion so you don't have to deal with it, and it's not valid.

I can tell you I have some personal friends who are conservatives (as well those are liberal minded), and I've heard the same kind of comments from them as I described here, and I believe what they're saying. Would be strangely weird for all my conservative friends to be coordination lying on something that doesn't really require lying.

You know, you could go and ask them yourself, instead of just assuming that they're lying and manipulating. Homo-sapiens are never that straightforward.