Y’know, a coworker said the same to me when and made an “edgy” joke on a lunch break during training. I was…19? and my friend group in school had made those jokes with a justification of “we’re only laughing at the absurdity, and that some people actually think this!” 1/2-ish

When he and I had the same interaction you described, it was like it flipped a switch in my brain. Dunno if it was bc he’d been the first to say that, or bc he was an actual adult and I kinda wanted to be that instead of stuck in high school mentality. But—and this is cliche—it set me on a path.