Your real motives are revealed by the externalities of your actions that you don’t act to price in
Conversation
Support or criticism from unexpected quarters are externalities. If you double down with no course change, you are condoning the former, denying the merit (and possibly locus standi) of the latter.
Replying to
Acknowledging you’re surprised by a reaction and making efforts to understand and accommodate it is not the same as admitting you’re wrong. If it feels like it, it means you knew you were wrong all along.
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