I think on the margin the community is too concerned with reacting to “what people might think” instead of their actual reactions.
I see where you’re coming from with this general heuristic, but I’m less sure how applicable the heuristic is to this context. In most cases, it seems right to ask, “How will a random person react if they hear X, if they randomly stumble across it?” But given the adversarial nature of politics, the more relevant question here might be, “How will a random person react if they hear X, if it’s presented however an adversary wants to present it?” And my intuition is that the latter question, when it’s very relevant, warrants lots more caution in public communications (while high openness is still great in certain private communications).
I see where you’re coming from with this general heuristic, but I’m less sure how applicable the heuristic is to this context. In most cases, it seems right to ask, “How will a random person react if they hear X, if they randomly stumble across it?” But given the adversarial nature of politics, the more relevant question here might be, “How will a random person react if they hear X, if it’s presented however an adversary wants to present it?” And my intuition is that the latter question, when it’s very relevant, warrants lots more caution in public communications (while high openness is still great in certain private communications).