This little nugget buried in the article:
“I see it most when people want to win arguments — they pathologize themselves to give themselves authority (‘I have XYZ disorder therefore you must listen to me’ or ‘You are being XYZ horrible thing — racist, classist, narcissist, whatever — therefore you’re wrong’),” Moskowitz says. “The categorization allows for a flattening of nuance. You can’t argue with someone calling you a sexist or a sociopath or whatever, and you can’t argue with someone who bases the entirety of their argument in their personal experience.”
This instinct has only intensified over the past 18 months. Amanda Brennan, an internet trend expert at XX Artists, has observed the ways that, after sitting with themselves and reflecting during the isolation of the pandemic, many people have come to monumental realizations about their gender, sexuality, mental health, and identity. “It feels good to say, ‘Here’s a set of predetermined things that I can try on like a hat, and if it fits, it fits,” she says. “It’s like the closet scene in Clueless: You try it on and see how it feels.” (My favorite example of this: a TikTok that reads “when it was supposed to just be 2 weeks on Zoom but now you’re bisexual.”)
They turned the comments off too lol
It's so exhausting when comments sections get turned off.