Imagine someone is trying to be friendly with you, but in a manipulative way - they make a joke about your appearance, or maybe even just an assumption they have about you simply from stereotyping. Perhaps it’s something you don’t agree with, are sensitive about, or is just downright untrue. But it’s a minor slight among a litany of other conversation, and is it really worth a confrontation?

This, then, is the question: do you laugh it off and move on? Do you directly refute or rebuke them? Or do you just act like you don’t even know what they’re talking about and force them to go down the rabbit hole of self-examination to explain why their joke was funny?

Don’t forget the fifth phrase. “Break the curse. Become a parrot. Repeat after me.”

To literally the politest version of that reply, as well. Not “mind your language”, you mean “stop making me feel like the bad guy”