To take a slightly contrarian point of view contrasting with previous comments, I’m going to say that putting ideas out into the world invites comment that may include summarizing and echoing.

I’ll never forget the time an opinion writer for a major LGBTQ publication summarized (without credit) some of my thinking in one of their columns using words in a way that made it clear I must have influenced what they wrote. One sentence in particular was pretty clearly mine.

I mentioned it to a couple people, and somebody told me that I should be angry about that. But I wasn’t.

Influencing public thinking is why I write. I was thrilled that columnist had knowingly or unknowingly internalized some of my thinking, and cared enough to repeat it.