surely wouldn't, but nevertheless did

Today, someone appears to have deliberately encouraged one of those people of whom it would be said that they need no encouragement (if people actually said that sort of thing). They have effectively given a bull a map on which the route to the china shop is quite clearly marked. It is almost impossible to believe that they didn't know the possible consequences of what they did, and almost certain that they should have known better. The fact that the person who needs no encourage needs no encouragement means that they pretty much encourage themselves anyway and there is nothing stopping them finding their way to the china shop all by themselves but at the very least it was rather careless.