[keane]

It’s much more complicated and interesting than this. Books have been written about it (eg. Circumventing the Law: Rabbinic Perspectives on Legal Loopholes and Integrity by Elana Stein Hain). One of the ideas is that halachic loopholes are meant to be discovered. It’s also been compared metaphorically to the difference between tax evasion (impermissible) and tax avoidance (legal means to reduce our obligation created by the authority’s design) which is something we all do.

[awakeasleep]

What is really incredible and worth dwelling on is how self-deception can be so clear and obvious to every person except the self. This, of course, applies to us all equally.

[IAmBroom]

It honestly feels like a corollary to the Dunning-Kruger Effect: Your ability to morally justify a cheat to yourself is proportional to how badly you want to win.