Yep, it's easier just to operate on your own rules and ignore everyone else's. Especially inconvenient engineers that bring up things like "facts" and "Laws of Physics" and so forth.
My bet is that they're so used to doing whatever the hell they want, that they just don't care. Either that, or - especially in the case of politicians - they know that 90% of the people who they work for either don't know the facts, don't care about them, or are too stupid to figure them out to begin with.