Doing the right thing might cost you a few followers. It was never a popularity contest anyway.

Approval and rightness overlap often enough to be confusing and not often enough to rely on. When they come apart you have to pick, and the cost of picking well is usually smaller than it looks beforehand. A few people drift off. The ones who stay understood exactly what they were watching.

If a choice is going to be unpopular, make it and then stop explaining. Defending it repeatedly turns it into a fight and makes it look like you are asking permission. Let it stand and let people sort themselves out.