These days, social media ignore the old adage of "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all."

People hide behind anonymity and say cruel things about strangers they don't even know, which is extremely mean but also a cowardly way to be combative.

In person, things are a little different. Insulting an individual in retaliation can be warranted, but even those can get out of hand.

Curious to hear examples of the lengths people have gone to make someone feel bad, Redditor kind_of_whore asked:

"What's an insult you've heard that went TOO far?"

As heartless as these can be, an ounce of humor can be found from the perspective of an outsider.

"Honestly, the worst I ever heard came out of the mouths of my 11-year-old daughter and her friend. They had a falling out, and when she told me the words exchanged, I was floored. For reference, we just had our 18-year-old cat go missing outside for 3 weeks."

"My daughter's friend said to my daughter, 'Haha, your cat ran away, and you deserve it'. Our cat then miraculously returned, and my daughter texted her, 'Hey, I just want to let you know Dexter came back, something that your dad will never do.' "

- Stsberi97

"My father in law, a teacher in Korea, called a kid 'a waste of rice.' "

"There's a similar proverb in hindi that I've always really enjoyed. 'Kaam ka na kaaj ka, dushman anaaj ka.' It translates to, 'Good for no work and an enemy/waste of grain.' The fact that it rhymes makes it funnier for me."

- lost_mountain_goat

"In middle school this popular girl that used to be my friend was making cruel remarks about my weight. I was on the brink of tears when this guy came up and asked if we were talking about the time she fell out of her chair and farted really loud. She cried, it felt good."

- xhoneyxbear

"Reminds me of this one girl, who came to my school for summer school. She was there from private school, for 'extra credit.' Was a legit bully, always talking down to us poors. Then one day her chair just flattened, like all four legs just straight down."

"And it was one of those chairs with the desk part attached, so she was trapped. Took several janitors to roll her out of it, while everyone laughed. Best part is, her fancy pants 'rich' parents wouldn't let her quit in shame, so she got clowned the whole rest of the time."

- Princess_Slagathor

Using another's personal struggle against them is a cardinal sin.

"As an adult, I feel horrible about it, but in the 7th grade this girl had been making me miserable for 2 years because I was a foot taller, 50 lbs heavier, and a bit louder than the other girls in my grade."

"One day I got sick of fat comments when she pointed out my stretch marks in the locker room during PE, and I spun around and told her and the entire locker room, 'sorry I have parents who feed me when your dad is dea,d and your mom is in jail for killing him!'"

"I had heard adults talking about how her mom gave her dad a hot shot and left him to die so an aunt was raising her. I realize now that crossed a line, and our classmates didn't know, but at the time, I was just relieved that she started crying and therefore left me alone for a while."

- beeghost

"That time my cousin and I were arguing when we were little kids, and I shouted at him, 'well, at least my mom doesn't have cancer!'"

"And then it turned out that he didn't know his mom had terminal cancer because his parents were trying to hide it from him."

- Hrekires

"A buddy at work was trying to rip on me, and was like 'your mom has vagina cancer.'"

"I (truthfully) replied 'My mom is in the hospital with cervical cancer.' I wasn't too upset since the survival rate at her stage was like 95+%, so not much worse than the risk of dying otherwise at any given year her age, and she did fully recover."

"This was over a decade ago, but as long as I live, I will never, ever forget his reaction or the look on his face."

- kitten_twinkletoes

"A girl was bullying me in middle school. She started going at me one day because I was adopted. She was saying sh*t about how unwanted I was as a baby and that my birth mom knew I wasnt good enough to keep."

"My friend chimed in with 'Her parents wanted her so much that they went out of their way to adopt her. They chose her. Your parents had you by mistake and are stuck with you. They probably regret not putting you up for adoption.'"

"Really changed my perspective on my own situation, and it shut that girl right up. Big shout out to my homegirl Brooke in sixth grade for having my back."

"I said that to a friend while we were both very drunk arguing about something stupid. I knew it was such a horrible thing to say and I didn't mean it at all, but the reaction from the friends around us confirmed it was a very f'ked up thing to say, whether I was joking or not."

"I was at Christmas and my brother and sister were fighting. Her boyfriend (in his 40's) spoke up and said, 'Don't talk to my girlfriend that way.', without missing a beat, my brother said, 'This is none of your business, you're gonna be gone next week anyways.'"

"You could hear a pin drop it was so quiet. It was a running joke that you could tell which Christmas it was by which boyfriend was in the family picture sooo he didn't say anything we hadn't already thought when we found out she was bringing this guy."

"He mustered up a '...N..No I'm not going anywhere' and then my sister started crying."

"He stuck around for another month, and then she broke it off like she did with all the others."

- Public-Map6490

"Ex-boyfriend told me that he hopes my cancer comes back and I die this time. Not even a year later, it did come back :/ I am still pushing through treatment more than a year later now, but on my worst days, it really is all I think about."

- snickerssq

"F'k that guy. I hope you beat cancer's ass and live happy."

- chunkybeard

"I worked construction at one point and everyone at my company was informed at a team meeting that one of our employees, Joe, went through a horrible tragedy. He was in bad car accident. He was minorly injured."

"But his wife, who was pregnant with their first kid at the time, was greaty injured and lost the baby. I don't recall if she made it or not."

"A new guy on the crew asked why Joe hadn't been seen at work in a while. One employee, Austin, replied with 'I dunno. You should ask his kid.' "

"I don't think I've ever heard a joke in such bad taste with my own ears."

- Electrical-Ad-3242

Some people don't deserve to exist if their sole purpose is to make others feel worthless.

Whatever personal demons these instigators struggle with, they need to sort things out themselves or seek professional help.

Because causing emotional harm to others will never solve problems.

The best thing to do in a heated scenario is always just to walk away before more damage is done.

What was the worst insult you've ever heard? How did you respond to it?