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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022

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What happened here?

Me being a cynical bitch, you harshed their mellow. Here they were, all ready to bask in the rush of assurance, attention and online 'hugs and love' that would result from them posting about being gay and claiming to be too scared to go out, because here is evidence the heteronormative society of bigoted straights around you is out to get you, and then you come along with logic and reason and ruin it all.

Tsk, tsk!

Some people are just attention [sex workers] and will jump on any chance to go "But what about me???". Some people really are that neurotic and fearful that they sleep on the floor because if they had a bed, then that would give the monsters someplace to lurk under.

These kind of post-disaster chains aren't about "so what are my chances of being eaten by an octopus older than the universe, in reality?" They're about on the one hand "I am a Good Ally and extend unconditional love and accept the official version of events" and on the other "I am a special snowflake and I demand your attention".

They’re also about ‘I have a phobia and demand accommodation’.

This guy almost certainly knew that his fear was about as rational as being afraid of entering a skyscraper after 9/11. Pointing that out isn’t welcome, because it doesn’t change his reason for having this fear(which is likely to demand accommodation).

I think this is reading a lot into a comment of which you have only read a (not entirely sympathetic) precis. Seems most likely to me he was just engaging in the sort of hyperbole we all do on a daily basis.