Have you been hurt by a purely hypothetical question? Why?

Yes. My SO suggested we join the Peace Corps since we’re recent grads having a hard time finding career-oriented jobs. Although I don’t mind the idea of doing humanitarian work, I would prefer to do it in my home country; there is plenty of need here, too. Plus I’m happy here and don’t want to move, as selfish as that may sound. I think he was disappointed that I didn’t jump at the idea, and that I did react as if it’s a done deal. I believe it’s easy to respond that way to a hypothetical question because we don’t always know the other person’s intentions. We can’t read their minds and see how serious they are. Also, it may be upsetting because we feel that decisions are being made without our input, especially if it’s a serious situation like a life partner making plans-however tenatively-about where to live.

Uh… no to all. At least I don’t think so.
I’ve asked my own share of completely random “just curious” hypothetical questions, I never did think you need a practical reason just to ask something.

Still, I get the feeling this question is a not so hypothetical one.

No, because if it’s real enough to hurt my feelings then it’s not purely hypothetical. There’s a big difference between “What if everybody was a robot?” and “What if I took a job in another city?”

wow, great question. I guess I totally have been. I suppose it was because the thought of some people leaving was very alien and a tad abhorrent. And the first time facing the beast has sometimes been an ugly battle. It might sting more if the person seems well suited to the hypothetical destination. To not have seen it coming can be shocking.

Yes but it passed because i can’t say upset on friends.

How about: Would the world have been a better place without Germans? No Hitler. No World War II. No 60 million dead people.

@mattbrowne
Ooh, good example. I hadn’t thought of that sort of thing.
It’s completely unimplementable, so it can only be hypothetical, but it can still hurt your feelings that people would ask such a thing.
Isn’t that a kind of feeling-hurting by implication, though? I’d think it’s not the (in principle impartial) question itself that hurts, but the mental image of someone longingly dreaming about such a hypothetical German-less world.
I’m not sure if that disqualifies it, or actually makes it fulfil the requirement perfectly – that’s up to @wundayatta. It seems to be a very different thing to his example though.

@Fyrius – Yes, by implication. But it reflects the experiences of many young Germans born after WWII, because sooner of later they are confronted with the fact very often the first associations many people have when they say, oh, you’re from Germany, are Hitler, Goebbels and the holocaust. And not Gutenberg, Kepler, Bach, Kant, Goethe, Daimler, Einstein, and Bonhoeffer. It’s painful, but necessary. On a few occasions it was very hard for my daughter. I told her that we cannot undo the past, but we can shape the future. Build a better future. I told her that no other country in the world is so brutally honest about its past as Germany.