It’s about something a lot of people deal with now, and it’s honestly way more common than we like to admit: the private chat culture where cruelty starts to feel normal because it’s happening behind the screen.
Here’s how it usually goes.
It starts with a little inside joke, a nickname, a moment like, “Can you believe her?”
Someone drops a comment, people react with laughing emois, and suddenly the group has a shared language.
And when that language is built on tearing one person down, the group bonds tighter, the more brutal it gets.
That’s not venting.
That’s a system.
And when the target finally sees it, the first move is almost always the same.
They try to spin it.
“You’re too sensitive.”
“It was a joke.”
“It’s private.”
In plain terms, that’s gaslighting.
Try to make you doubt what you clearly saw and what clearly hurt.
