So rather than guess any further, I’m going to turn this over to my readers. I’m hoping in particular that someone used to feel this way—shutting down an impulse to praise someone else highly, or feeling that it was cultish to praise someone else highly—and then had some kind of epiphany after which it felt, not allowed, but rather, quite normal.
Always safer to be a critic than to earnestly praise something and open yourself up to sneering by critics.
On the other hand, some of what may be taken as distancing yourself from the prophet may just be the natural, most efficient way to accurately identify yourself. “I like him, except for a, b, c.”
Always safer to be a critic than to earnestly praise something and open yourself up to sneering by critics.
On the other hand, some of what may be taken as distancing yourself from the prophet may just be the natural, most efficient way to accurately identify yourself. “I like him, except for a, b, c.”