For those who don't know, negging is a red pill tactic when someone subtly insults you in the hopes of lowering your self esteem and trying to get you to fight for their approval. I feel that I see this on tiktok often, men sending women negging opening liners on hinge and the women nevertheless interacting with them. Here's why you should never respond, let alone confront, call out, or question his behaviour:

  1. You will be told you "can't take a joke" and gaslit. It'll simply make you feel worse. He won't apologise because they already know what they're doing, it is DESIGNED to upset you, HE KNOWS. You may spark wrath and anger from the particularly malignant ones.
  2. You're already losing by giving him attention at all. I'm fairly certain most of these men have little hope in these red pill tactics, and simply get a kick out of women out of their league (or any women at all) acknowledging them and the power they have in eliciting a negative reaction from you.
  3. You will not change their mind, at most you will simply make them better manipulators. Never call out shitty men for their obviously shitty behaviour because they'll know to hide it for the next girl, though they won't fundamentally change or reflect on their behaviour. Let them keep waving their red flags as warning signs to all other women.
  4. If that's the note he starts on, he is fundamentally disrespectful, manipulative, and mean-spirited. Men with even a modicum of social grace know that if you want to make any sort of connection with a person, you do not begin with an insult. No matter how good he looks on paper otherwise, this is someone rotten to the core and not worth a drop of your energy.

Simply report/block, and ignore. This is the only way to "win" in this interaction. Do not argue or try to clap back or call him out. They thrive on attention, negative or not, they are getting a kick out of winding you up. You will not change them or make them see the error of their ways, they fundamentally don't care.