Fact or feeling?
It’s a problem when someone quotes a feeling as a fact… He is obviously confused and can be ignored or comforted based on how much you care…. Either case it is not your mistake!
If however, the feeling becomes collective and everyone feels that way and you are the object… not withstanding where the mistake lies, is your problem and you better do what it takes to root it out….
It is always easy to deal with facts… And most feelings can be rightsized by quoting facts (assuming of course that you are dealing with logical reasonable people).
It’s extremely important to deal with the situations where collective feelings are involved….
What’s more important through it all is that you are dealing with fact yourself…. not feeling!!!