As EmptySlime says, people ask because they have an irrational belief that must be socially normalized via basically peer pressure, otherwise they’d have to confront their cognitive dissonance and realize that they are mistaken and needlessly cruel.
Its basically the same dynamic as children bullying poor kids that can’t afford whatever the ‘cool’ clothes or shoes are, the same dynamic as many (not all, but many) religious people being literally unable to conceive of a person being able to be a generally morally good person without believing in a God as the source of that morality.
Its an irrational worldview that is logically unstable if interrogated, thus it must be reinforced via pressured social norms.
As EmptySlime says, people ask because they have an irrational belief that must be socially normalized via basically peer pressure, otherwise they’d have to confront their cognitive dissonance and realize that they are mistaken and needlessly cruel.
Its basically the same dynamic as children bullying poor kids that can’t afford whatever the ‘cool’ clothes or shoes are, the same dynamic as many (not all, but many) religious people being literally unable to conceive of a person being able to be a generally morally good person without believing in a God as the source of that morality.
Its an irrational worldview that is logically unstable if interrogated, thus it must be reinforced via pressured social norms.