whenpushkincomestoshove:

In a culture where people ask how you’re doing as a symbol of politeness and not out of any sincere desire to actually Know, you are equally expected to answer with some vague polite affirmative (“it’s going good/fine/ok”). Being truthful and saying “it’s not going well/its going bad” implies intimacy and invites further questions about your personal life. So somehow the alternative has become that being exactly neutral conveys a sense of negativity and gets the point across without opening yourself to invasive questions from strangers (Who, once again, are probably only asking them because this is the politness script) and honestly it’s kinda buckwild.