One of the most selfish things you can say to a younger person is "I suffered in a specific way at your age, so you ought to suffer that way too."

It's a parfait of selfishness, in fact, requiring more than one tweet. One is obvious -- it's self-satisfied sadism.

Two is that it's forcing another to suffer in order to validate your own existence. To make your own suffering seem like something that couldn't be avoided, something inherently noble to have endured. To sacrifice another's happiness to validate yourself. I find that disgusting.

Three is that it's an attempt to force that younger person to become more like you. To be shaped into a form more like yours by exposing them to the same traumas. In a way, it's a fear of death. Of disappearing because you've made your past suffering part of who you are inside.

This isn't a subtweet to anyone or even a reaction to any kind of recent event. In fact, that's part of the problem -- this attitude *isn't* remarkable, it's just something a lot of people my age or older do. Every day, all the time.

I don't approve of it. I want less suffering.