I never said it was excellence, I said it was being a good salesman: never stated that I think salesmanship is some kind of great human quality, or that it is at all a quality or even that it has any kind of moral value positive or negative.

It was never a value statement about salesmanship as a human practice, it was simply an observation about how in my opinion human intelligence relates to proeficiency in that practice.

I think you unwittingly used the context of Society around you and what it tells you are great qualities, to fill the gaps in what I wrote and hence drew moral conclusions from it rather than from my statements which did not at all include a moral judgment.

Further, the possibility that I somehow “leaked” my opinion on it from a moral standpoint is inconsistent with how, personally, I don’t even have a positive opinion about salesmanship in moral terms, though I recognize the rewards it can bring in present day society to be good at it and appreciate a good salesman with the same kind moral-detached respect for expertise as I would appreciate a good conman or a good thief - whether one agrees or disagrees with that kind of job, one cannot but appreciate the smooth elegance of mastery in a complex domain. I can hardly “leak” a positive moral opinion when my opinion on that practice is neutral or slightly below neutral.

(Also, I couldn’t care less about what present day Society tells us are great human qualities, except perhaps that, having to live in it, I have to navigate that crap just like everybody else).