Dexify

This is a common masochistic sabotage that I describe with the acronym "dexify." When individuals defend, explain, or justify, they are unnecessarily supporting the reasons for their decision and giving others the opportunity to rebut their rationale.

Powerful people don't dexify (defend, explain, or justify).

The reason for this is that when you ask "why" questions people feel defensive and have a tendency to "dexify" (defend, explain, justify) what they said.

We may “dexify” — try to defend, explain and justify — so that the angry person will stop being angry with us.