This and this suggest to me that one purpose (meta-purpose?) of meanness is cheap signaling—if you already have a reputation (deserved or not) as an authority figure, you can use it to quickly designate something as ‘bad’ without having to spend time and energy justifying yourself.
This and this suggest to me that one purpose (meta-purpose?) of meanness is cheap signaling—if you already have a reputation (deserved or not) as an authority figure, you can use it to quickly designate something as ‘bad’ without having to spend time and energy justifying yourself.