"Everyone's so open and friendly" is a lie

[linayar]

Tbh I totally disagree, passive-aggressiveness is just disgusting and annoying imo.
It almost feels like bait, like they want you to get mad so that you look like the asshole.

I disagree. Among strangers, you can happily be ignorant of passive aggressiveness and/or leave the person be negative on their own. Someone being rude doesn't give you that choice, which is why rudeness tends to more easily create a toxic environment.

I think where passive aggressivenes causes more grief is among close friends, but that's also the kind of social group where general rudeness is more tolerated as you have different context with your friends. So it's kind of backward when dealing with strangers.