What does "the emperor has no clothes" mean?

This is what Lynne Miller answered. "There is a fairy tale called "The Emperor's New Clothes." In the story the Emperor is a vain man and always wants the newest fashions. A couple of swindlers convince him that the clothes they are making him are of such fine quality that only the most elevated people can see them. He can't admit that he's not the most elevated person, so he wears the clothes in the palace, and everyone bows down and says what a fine set of clothes he has because they are afraid to contradict the Emperor. Then he goes out and leads a parade to show off his new clothes to the people (lack of foresight on his part, unless he thinks all his people are highly elevated.) Everyone pretends to admire the clothes except one little boy who yells out "But the Emperor has no clothes." The moral is that because of pretentiousness and social hypocricy people pretend to know about or agree with certain things because it makes them look better. And also, I suppose, that the honesty of the innocent is best."

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Panait Ciprian responded with this.

"In many cases people pretend something to be factual even if they are not convinced so that they do not look foolish. This is used by con-artists to sell the most outrageous ideas. For instance 99% of modern art is utter garbage but since art critiques speak so good of it then most people follow the trend. There are dozens of such examples on what today is unlawfully called science and people accept the stupid claims so that they do not look stupid. I know I am going to get burned for this but evolution is such a case.

The expression comes from a story by H.C Andersen about an emperor who ordered clothes. Some con-artists said they could weave clothes that can be seen only by smart people . In reality they pocketed the money and materials and just pretended to weave the clothes. Does that sound familiar? "If you do not agree with us you are too dumb to understand x!" Out of fear of being ridiculed everyone started to admire the inexistant clothes. In the end a child reveals to the crowd that the emperor is actually naked (actually in his underwear but anyway) and everyone realizes the scam. It shows how easy people can be conned by frauds that prey on their fears and insecurities".