"In practice, that means making code review comments unclear and extremely passive aggressive." No, it doesn't. It only means that if the only way you can expr

"In practice, that means making code review comments unclear and extremely passive aggressive." No, it doesn't. It only means that if the only way you can express yourself is by being mean. "I'd rather have plain, clear statements than statements that on the surface are pleasant and helpful but that are actually meant to be emotional and professional shivs. I've been both." Again, you can have plain, clear statements without being mean. Just because you aren't capable of writing them doesn't mean the rest of us aren't. "he proposal is to prevent conversations flowing naturally according to the normal implicit rules of conversation and instead steer the conversation to "inclusive" topics. You know what I'd do in that situation? Grab a bunch of my coworkers and head off to the nearest pub to have the conversation we want to have. Congratulations, you've tried to help and made things worse." No, you've just proven that you aren't willing to include other coworkers in your discussion. You've also proven that you aren't able to have a discussion about anything that isn't a few topics that you care about, and aren't willing to listen to others talk about what they care about. You're the one that comes out looking bad here. "This idea is both trendy and dangerous. Some ideas are better than others. I don't want to be around people who think that asbestos and plastic are both perfectly good materials for medical devices and that we should reach a compromise position to ensure that everyone is heard. If person A consistently proposes ideas that work and person B is genial, but constantly proposes ideas that don't work, A has more merit." Again, you're making false choices here. The idea that you have to choose between someone being nice but not good, and someone who is good but mean. There is absolutely no reason for that. "This argument is circular." No, it really isn't. And you haven't provided anything to claim that it is.