I agree it's possible to err too far in the direction of focus on putting on a good appearance. It's quite tricky to strike the right balance between directness and tact. The conversations that I had with LW posters after making my string of postings on SIAI convinced me that I had placed too little emphasis on tact in the context under discussion. But certainly there are situations where taking a direct approach is warranted.

The main message that I hope people take away from my top level posting is that it's important to provide context to conversation partners who have a worldview different from one's own. Often such context is of independent interest so the opportunity cost of providing background and context is low.