It would be cowardly to say “your views are controversial and will turn people off”
Would it? If God came down from the heavens and told Resolution that X many qualified candidates would refuse to join their org if they employed Richard, surely there is some value of X that makes it non-cowardly to say “We are not hiring you because your controversial views will turn people off”.
Lacking divine insight, Resolution must have made their own estimate of X and decided it was too high. This is of course the sort of thing they would say if they were a bunch of dirty cowards trying to hide their cowardly decisionmaking, but they would say it because it is a believable non-cowardly decision for them to have made, and I don’t see how you can rule it out.
Would it? If God came down from the heavens and told Resolution that X many qualified candidates would refuse to join their org if they employed Richard, surely there is some value of X that makes it non-cowardly to say “We are not hiring you because your controversial views will turn people off”.
Lacking divine insight, Resolution must have made their own estimate of X and decided it was too high. This is of course the sort of thing they would say if they were a bunch of dirty cowards trying to hide their cowardly decisionmaking, but they would say it because it is a believable non-cowardly decision for them to have made, and I don’t see how you can rule it out.