I originally felt that your remarks were essentially an ad hominem attack themselves, made by imputation rather than explicitly. Rather than go with that, I de

I originally felt that your remarks were essentially an ad hominem attack themselves, made by imputation rather than explicitly. Rather than go with that, I decided to interpret them in a sympathetic light. Although this required that I imagine you as having experienced rejection, it allowed me to treat your characterization of someone who might think you were bragging ("small," "insecure", "self-loathing") as understandable within the context of bewildered injury.