An oldie, but a goodie
One behavior is inherently childish. One is not. One is objectively the attitude of an infant and thus does not require the act of infantalization in order to be framed as such.
No, it isn’t, and this is a subjective opinion on your part. Not everyone agrees with you, so it’s not objective. Even what exactly is ‘childish’ behaviour is subjective, and arguably culturally dependent.
His behaviour is pretty much by definition, that of an adult. An adult with poor impulse control, poor anger management skills, sure. But childish? That’s a value judgement which contains no insight likely to reach anyone. It adds nothing to the conversation.
Use less reductionist words to explain why it’s bad.
Or to rephrase: Linus’ reply isn’t bad because it is childish. All calling it childish, or infantile, communicates is your own judgement.
Also; describing your judgement as ‘calling out’ - particularly when this is behaviour he has since admitted was poor, and has taken time out to address - just reads like you’re using the language of social justice to justify judgemental language.
Ohhh. I understand now. You’re saying that calling his behaviour childish is insulting to children. We’re finally on the same page.
More seriously, poor impulse control and a lack of long-term thinking and an inability to take others’ feelings into account are all attributes common to children as they lack the emotional and physiological development required. Children lash out and break their toys, and some adults do because they did not develop from that stage.
poor impulse control and a lack of long-term thinking and an inability to take others’ feelings into account
And what is stopping you from just saying that, rather than using a pithy pejorative with a side order of pop psychology? Or even “emotionally immature” rather than needlessly infantilizing him by pushing the age comparison down to “attitude of an infant”? It’s not just brevity. On some level you must want to express disdain for his behaviour.
I (seriously) do not see this as any different to “he hurt a few people’s fee-fees”. That guy chose those words to convey his disdain for the people Linus hurt. He could rationalize his dismissiveness just as you have, via “children are more sensitive” or whatever, and it would be equally spurious.
