[pdpi]

Both forms of “Silence is (not) consent” are true, they just refer to different things. If you are in a position of authority, silence is effectively consenting to the status quo remaining unaltered.

If you are not in a position of authority, whoever is in that position can’t take your silence as consent of their choices.

[cutemonster]

Nice explanation; I never thought about this in such a logical way (although intuitively I'd known the answer)