The same “good natured ribbing” between siblings that people constantly mislabel as such even though it’s simply bullying, but “boys will be boys”, eh? Sibling relationships that are built on laughing at each other are not “cute”.
Well, guess what, I don’t want to “laugh at my younger self” some time. And I don’t want you to “give me some shit” when you think it’s warranted either. That’s literally just called bullying, and when someone stands up to that, you probably tell them to “learn how to take a joke”. And that’s exactly the mindset (and kind of people) I hope will die out sooner than later.
I want to be a person I would have been proud of becoming when I was younger. Ridiculing and humiliating people for being vulnerable or expressing themselves leads to the exact kind of political climate we have today, and as a German who is familiar with our history it scares me. The Venn diagram between people who make fun of emos, scene kids, furries or whatever other “cringe” minority of the day in a “good hearted” way, and people who “inadvertently” bully them and drive them to suicide, is probably close to a circle.
You telling me I will laugh at my younger self some day tells me exactly one thing: that you laugh at me presently and assume I will be the same when I “grow up”. Newsflash: I do not speak to those adults anymore that used to tell me these things about my teen ages because they - unsurprisingly - just bullied me and thought I would grow up to be as hateful as them eventually. And I still don’t laugh at myself when I was a teenager. As an adult, I am very much in tune with who I used to be, and all my scene/emo/outcast friends besides.