Has anyone else noticed this? It drives me up the wall.
When somebody says something somebody else disagrees with, it stops being about what the person has to say and it starts being about them - namely, what's wrong with them, and how sorry the person hearing what they have to say feels for them. "You're a loser" was too abrasive and unlikely to get the opposite side making concessions to you, so after a couple of decades the top minds of internet argumentation decided that pretending to care about strangers with retarded opinions is much more effective. Obviously the person doesn't give a shit and is just gaslighting in an attempt to make the other person think they're a bad person or have something wrong with them for disagreeing with them, but that doesn't stop the oh-so caring individual from doubling down on it and insisting that something must truly be wrong with you if you disagree with them.
What do I mean by this? You say something, and you get these kinds of responses: "It's so sad you believe that", "that's an unhealthy way to think" "that's a really toxic mindset", "you need help", some variation of "get therapy", most aggravatingly "are you okay?", and perhaps most hilariously "who hurt you?". The goal is to make the person they disagree with seem like some sad person with past trauma and a chip on their shoulder, so what they have to say does not reflect reality at all and is just a symptom of the sorry state they're in. You're hurt and we can fix you, just agree with our worldview. It's basically calling someone an incel or a basement dweller, but you're being nice to them so they'll look unhinged if they tell you to go fuck yourself.
The only problem with this is that it isn't applied to shit like saying you think everyone is staring at you and wants you to kill yourself, or something else someone who's really burnt or mentally ill would say, it's just used against anyone saying literally anything negative about anything, any individual or any group of people whatsoever. You can say something that's true and people who sanctimoniously defend the public against hearing things that aren't socially acceptable will insist you are a damaged lunatic for saying it. If you're angry or upset about anything whatsoever, the problem is inside your brain rather than in the world around you.
I have two theories about this, and I want you guys to tell me if I'm right about them or not.
Firstly, I think almost all of the people doing this are Americans or are really Americanised culturally. America is the nation of shitty pop-psychology self-help books (see Carnegie) and soullessly grinning in the presence of a camera every time without exception. When Americans smile at each other, it is more likely to be passive-aggressive domineering posturing rather than a genuine display of joy (often baring their teeth - Americans are a lot like chimpanzees in this respect). Americans are temporarily embarrassed billionaires locked in a social and economic death struggle with each other, which is why they even go to the point of kicking out their 18 year old kids for not paying them 500 a month in rent. It seems only natural that the American psyche lends itself to throwing underhanded passive-aggressive mock-psychoanalytical "caring" at strangers who disagree with you on the internet. America's culture is actually kind of terrible, how are you even supposed to fix it?
Secondly, this is wageslavery's fault. Every workplace seems to have posters everywhere related to "mental health" and "wellbeing".
I myself literally worked at a call centre and there was literally a telling people to ask others "are you okay?" on the wall. Nobody who works at a call centre is okay, except maybe the doofus manager who just sits there all day watching everyone and gets paid twice as much. Nobody cares that they're not okay either, the only reason there's such a drive to make sure everyone in the workplace is "okay" is because the inability of somebody having a mental breakdown to put up with 50 hours of minimum wage service work a week is bad for the company, which has to expend time and effort dealing with it it could use to generate more revenue or expand its presence. Wageslaves aren't useful if they aren't okay, which is why your narc subhuman of a manager is somehow okay but you aren't if you want to blow his head off and then your own every time a customer asks you something you aren't even supposed to know the answer to.
As human productivity peaks and only so much financial wizardry can keep the GDP growing on paper, the powers that be have decided to wring as much value out of the cattle as possible by attempting to psychologically condition them into working as enthusiastically and efficiently as possible without technological progress aiding the increase in productivity. Any failure to cope with the intensification of slavery is mental illness and not "being okay".
Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay? The utilisation of this 21st century workplace trick in internet argumentation carries the same underlying FUCK YOU it does in the workplace. When someone asks if you're okay, it's probably not because they actually care if you're okay or even want to know if you're actually okay. It's because you look kind of nauseous after having hot shit squirted in your mouth. Your "toxic mindset" didn't materialise out of thin air and it isn't just you, the world is actually a shitheap in some aspects but prissy Americans channeling the spirit of their cunt managers demand you keep quiet about it for your own wellbeing (presumably).
