There used to be a rule in this country.
If you were wrong, you corrected it.
You didn’t enjoy it.
You didn’t advertise it.
But you did it.
Now we live in something different.
Now, when confronted with error, contradiction, or consequence, the reflex is not correction.
It is escalation.
Double down.
Say it louder.
Repeat it harder.
Blame the critic.
Shift the target.
Call it strength.
And enough people nod that it begins to feel normal.
That is the part that concerns me.
Not disagreement.
Not conflict.
Not even stubbornness.
Normalization.
We have normalized the idea that never backing off is integrity.
It isn’t.
It’s insecurity fused with performance.
When identity becomes attached to a position, changing that position feels like erasing yourself. And in a culture where everything is archived, screenshot, clipped, and replayed, the cost of admitting error feels permanent.
So instead of recalibrating, people fortify.
You see it in government.
A policy fails. Instead of adjustment, messaging intensifies.
You see it in corporations.
A product harms trust. Instead of humility, there’s a reframe.
You see it in tech.
Safety concerns arise. Instead of slowing down, expansion accelerates.
You see it in personal life.
A contradiction is pointed out. Instead of reflection, volume increases.
The logic is simple:
Backing down looks weak.
Doubling down looks strong.
But that’s surface strength.
Structural strength behaves differently.
Structural strength can absorb correction.
It can adjust course without collapsing.
It understands that revision is not surrender.
The double down ethos erodes something subtle but essential: trust.
Trust is built when words and reality stay aligned over time.
When alignment breaks and is ignored, trust thins.
When alignment breaks and is defended aggressively, trust fractures.
Eventually people stop arguing.
They just stop believing.
And once belief in correction disappears, the social fabric loosens.
The danger isn’t loud disagreement.
The danger is when escalation replaces accountability as the default response.
The question isn’t how to eliminate it.
The question is how to live inside it without becoming it.
You do not meet escalation with escalation.
You refuse the performance arena.
You ask calm questions.
You repeat the original claim.
You stay on the point.
You do not chase the moving target.
And when someone refuses to recalibrate, you stop trying to convert them and focus on the observers.
There are always observers.
In every public argument, most people are not the two shouting. They are the ones watching, deciding what kind of behavior feels stable.
That is where the real influence lies.
If correction is modeled without shame, it regains dignity.
If restraint is practiced without apology, it regains strength.
If disagreement is handled without theatrics, it regains credibility.
The double down culture thrives because it is rewarded with attention.
Remove the reward.
Reward steadiness instead.
This is not about being soft.
It is about being durable.
A society that cannot correct itself cannot endure.
A leader who cannot adjust cannot lead.
A citizen who cannot reconsider cannot grow.
The strongest people I’ve known were not the loudest in defense of their mistakes.
They were the quickest to repair them.
That used to be normal.
Maybe it needs to be again.
And maybe the first step is simple:
Refuse to treat escalation as courage.
Call it what it is.
And model something steadier.
micvicfaust@intelligent-people.org
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