But all you know is that, time after time, people punish you for trying to make them happy or ease their sorrow, and they punish you for trying to understand what you did wrong, and they punish you for trying to understand why they are punishing you.

This would just make me operate more covertly and avoid the worst cases of such folks, but some people might not see that as an option.

I think your explanation covers more a simple change in values rather than people taking their philosophies too seriously which it seems to me was what the gp had difficulty understanding. Perhaps the latter behavior doesn't even exists and it just seems that way.