Editing Openai/6973e373-2b8c-800d-84b7-d7001cfc6bac (section)

==== This is also right, and it’s an important move for moderation and for epistemic classification. ====

You’re basically saying:
* In the meta-cluster, intent can vary from “sincere but biased” to “partly aware” to “fully trolling.”
* But the functional output is the same: the person selects whichever lowest-cost move protects the preferred conclusion/self-image.
* So we can treat it as effective self-deceit / effective bad faith / effective defensiveness, without claiming perfect access to inner intent.

That is a clean and defensible stance because it avoids the weakest link in most debates: motive certainty.

It’s the same logic as:
* “I don’t need to know if the driver intended to drift lanes; the drift is still unsafe.”

And it also matches your “path of least resistance” description: the person toggles across tactics depending on what requires least inner cost in that moment.