When I get belligerent, social cues be damned! Though I have issues telling the right thing to do. I’ve gotten better at this overtime, but it’s not hard for people to sus me out as a non-normie.
I really appreciate when people announce what they hate, so I can expect exactly that from them. Really helps out with those social cues. “Yes, Brenda, we know you hate drama; sucks that it follows you around like a fart cloud. I’m sure it was the dog.”
The other half is ignoring something in order to not draw attention to it. An old book on manners said something like, one says “excuse me” for a burp, but if the gas emerges in the other direction, no one is to acknowledge it happened.
People use this tactic against autistic people all the time so it’s easy to see how it gets internalized. So many situations where it’s like “Oh, they know what this means and Im not going to humor them by explaining it, so I’m just going to pretend they know what everything means.” It’s very tempting to flip. As a teenager I definitely said “use your words like an adult” to adults, especially the types that would pull that reverse bullshit themselves.
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