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One thing that was hard to do for me as I got older and went from being a poor, fat, and socially awkward kid to being a moderately well adjusted, still fat, but comfortable adult is learning to sand down the spikes I'd developed for my own protection.
A lot of us who are smart but otherwise disadvantaged or made fun of learn that the defense we have is to be smart and be mean. I mean, 80's and 90's teen comedies basically teach you that that's what you're supposed to do. Use your intelligence to fight fire with lightning.
And as you get older that shit begins to express itself as an unnecessary level of meanness or cruelty. You clap back too hard or, being used to seeing yourself as the underdog, you snap on somebody who's thoughtlessly rude on the internet, not considering who they are.
I think you see this a lot with writers and other creators both online and in their films. There are a lot of nice people who tell jokes that are too mean for twitter that would have been the defense you might have needed against a high school bully.
You also see things like little bits of unnecessary dialog that takes you out of a moment in a story because a writer/director's defensive lizard brain thought a scene needed oomph. Then people come at you for it and it reactivates that whole reflex again.
I think that's how a lot of people get dug in so deep online. They developed a sense of humor as a defense mechanism and they don't know how to shut it off and it always feels like you need it. Traumatized kids just don't know how to win.
