That was a great article and it is unfortunate that you had to deal with that tone-policing behavior. There is an interesting article on tone-policing in Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_policing" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_policing</a>
Also see: <a href="https://www.robot-hugs.com/comic/tone-policing/" rel="nofollow">https://www.robot-hugs.com/comic/tone-policing/</a>
> Apparently, I was selling myself short; they knew I could do better and should just try harder, and asked if I had tried to google for resources on learning better social skills.<p>Ugh ‹takes deep calming breathes›, I literally have nightmares about this.