This has been a problem for me, at least when family politics came around..
I handle internal affairs like I do the internet, I'll give it straight and skip the politeness / sugary attitude.
There is a specific branch on my fam-tree that can't take it straight... I am an absolute nightmare to them...
Imagine you think everyone thinks you're top-dawg... then someone comes along tells you , eh, that's pretty mediocre, and there's NOTHING you can do to stop him from saying what he said.
See, on the internet, we're all very familiar with this... but the perpetually AFK generation simply can not deal with this fall from their own disproportionately high pedestal..