They are taught the rules, and are punished for going outside of them. Because they get taught fairly young and they don’t really make a tonne of sense/are often just based in fear of shitty authority figures there’s a lot of incentive to act like there’s something special and intuitive about them. They can’t explain themselves and the act of doing so would expose just how nonsense most of it is. They’re also so used to being told what to do that they have little to no experience adapting for the myriad of different types of people and how they communicate.

Seriously, once you realize that it’s all about making sure that fragile, scared, and/or stupid authority figures feel special the rules do start to make sense but no one wants to admit that.

Examples:

“Don’t talk about X because I’m uncomfortable and don’t know how to handle that in a healthy way.”

“Don’t share your interests because I’m boring as fuck and feel bad.”

“Don’t question why I do things because I find change really hard and feel old/worthless/threatened by people with other ideas.”

“You didn’t understand what I meant when I dodged around the point. How dare you.” One time my ex-girlfriend’s dad asked what our weekend plans were. I was telling him and my ex said “we won’t be home for dinner on Saturday.” Like bro if that’s what you want to know then fucking ask about it.

Seriously, it’s all just bullshit to make up for their massive lack of empathy and communication skills.