You've seen how people react to suggestions they don't like. There are a few people I could ask who I know agree with me, but they already have a lot to deal with right now.

[So a little of both; he doesn't want to overwhelm the people he's confident he could ask for help, and hasn't wanted to risk trying to ask anyone else. So part of stating something so publicly about how he felt had been to see who'd responded in what way, and it had worked; some of the new arrivals were interested in working on the problem. But then it had gone downhill from there.]