Yes it’s not easy to just change your social behavior at the blink of an eye. Nobody succeeds at that. You definitely can’t control having emotions, and obviously everyone wants approval from people that truly matter. I never got the idea here that OP was suggesting to hell with all that. The general picture here is that this is all about extremes, and worrying oneself to unnecessary degrees over trivial interactions, trying too hard to not slip up and gain approval from those who shouldn’t matter that much and don’t really have much to offer you with their approval anyway.

This is specifically geared towards the socially inept. They’re often the people with such anxiety. I don’t see who else this could really be for. Being overly concerned and paranoid about being laughed at and having your reputation ruined when you don’t double and triple check every last thing you do or say before doing it is precisely the point. That’s the fear that helps keep socially anxious people locked up.

Yeah you should definitely have a filter and think about things sometimes. It was pretty clear to me however that the point of this was steering clear of doing so in unnecessary, paralyzing extremes. Considering consequences is one thing. Shying away from action in general or too often because of the possibility of consequences is another.

OP probably should have been more clear about whose opinions and approval you should care more about, what situations you should be more careful in, etc. It’s not perfect advice, but it’s sound. It’s a far cry from “be yourself.” Is it easy to say and hard to do? Yes. Good advice for hard problems is hard to accomplish in real life. But you can make improvements with practice even if you don’t perfect it or even come all that close. If you have good, detailed advice for a hard problem like social anxiety that isn’t some cliche, and is easy to do like it is to say, then I’d love to hear it.