Warning: Read this at your own risk.
Many examples here are from personal experience, but others have been adapted for a more general public. I'm not dealing with political things, as it is often hard to figure out what some politicans actually mean when they are saying something.
People say: If you don't stick your rules, how can we?
They mean : We are not interested in those rules, but we like to have you under control, and we demand that you stick to what you wrote yourself. We want to try and force you to do so, because perhaps otherwise we would have tried to force you ourselves.
People say: I think he/she shouldn't go and study at the MIT (or somewhere else) because otherwise god knows with what kind of ideas he/she will come up with.
They mean: We want to have him/her under control and if he/she goes and study there, we won't have him under control.
People say: He/she isn't showing his/her text on perception philosophy (or an other text) because he/she has copied everything or large parts.
They mean: He/she should show it to us so we can check it because we think we have a right to know and so we can indicate what we like and like not.
People say: He/she should stick to one thing, or he should do one thing at time.
They mean: We don't feel comfortable around someone who doesn't work like we do; he/she should act like we do; he/she should be like us. Or even in later stage, this way we can control him. Or that way he/she will work less well, and so I can feel better.
People say: He can't have a normal love life because of the amount of hours he spends at a computer.
They mean: You should act like we do, because we know you, we understand you.
People say: Who does he/she think he is, that he/she can ridicule everyone?
They mean: 1. I read something that is not meant for my eyes, but I am angry at you because you dare to write that. 2. Only we are allowed to ridicule people, not you. We can laugh with you, but if you laugh with us, then we feel bad, so we are trying to get you under control so you don't and we can feel good.
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Article comments
1 - Adam
I reccomend you take out all the he/she and him/hers and just alternate pronouns for each part. In its current form it's cumbersome to read.
2 - Floris Vermeir
I didn't want to exclude anyone, but you are right it is cumbersome to read. In the future I will use what you propose as that is clearer.
For this post I will leave this one, an I didn't want to let anybody feel excluded. I appriciate you pointing this out to me, and I thank you very much for it.