iwouldwager

What you describe is doing everything you can in order to try to avoid a situation in which you might be required to flex your rights. How can you describe it as a strategy for "making sure your rights are respected"? It is on its face an attempt to make the question of whether you have rights or not a no-impact detail.

I would wager that it was this bit:

"it's the sort of cynicism that leads to [...] making sure your rights are respected"