A lot of people don't just associate being cold and unfeeling with being "smart", so many people associate being outright rude with being smart or witty, and it's so exhausting to deal with.
You see it a lot in this online culture of always having to give "witty" quips to whatever people say, even if that person is a stranger, even if that witty quip is rude, and even if their so called "witty" quip isn't actually witty or smart at all. But it bleeds a lot into daily life. It's probably not fair to completely blame this on social media, I don't want to be too "old man yells at clouds", of course this mentality existed before social media, but I feel like formats like X (formally known as Twitter) encourage this.
It's all about this weird need to TOTALLY PWN someone for, idk, some weird smug sense of intelligence and superiority when you're making yourself look the total opposite most of the time.
Take for example, the other day I was discussing pizza toppings with my boss. One of my co-workers chimes in "You know what pizza topping I just DO NOT understand? Pineapple! Come on people! It's so stupid, I can't believe how stupid people are that they're eating an unhealthy food like pizza and think putting pineapple on pizza makes it healthy! People are so dumb, I don't get it!" And she said it with this really smug tone, like she sure was showing anyone listening how smart and superior she was and how dumb they are.
The thing is, does anyone even put pineapple on pizza for health reasons? I know a few people who like pineapple on their pizza, and none of them do it for "health" reasons. It's all about just liking a sweet tangy flavor mixed in with the savory flavors of the pizza. In her desire to make herself look smart and witty, she made herself sound ignorant (to put it nicely).
And even if someone was putting pineapple on their pizza for health reasons, so what? Yeah, pizza is high in fat and carbs, but people still need some fat and carbs in their diet. Pineapples are high in vitamin c, vitamin b, manganese, and copper. If someone wanted more of those nutrients in their diet, what would be stupid about adding a food high in those nutrients to their dish, regardless of how high in fat and carbs the dish is?
I'm not saying I hate witty humor or attempts at wit, but it's about what your target is. People who have this incessant need to make themselves look smart and witty by trying to put down other people are telling on themselves.
First of all if you're not ABSOLUTELY 100% sure that you know what you're talking about, you risk making yourself look like the ignorant one and just look like an ass, to put it not so nicely. Second of all, it's only insecure people who have no sense of personal power who try to get a sense of power and self esteem by trying to put other people down.
