The thing is women don't want male friends as well. They are taught by society that men are all perverts and dangerous. So when men try to make friends, they're automatically suspicious or just straight up reject them.
As someone who seldom plays with friends (I have very few who want to play online), I just pick the store where the games are the cheapest or there's a sale or something. It doesn't really affect me that much.
But if all your friends are on steam, then check before getting a game on Epic, sometimes they don't let you play together. Most of the time they do, though.
To be fair, we use lah in almost every context, not just passive aggressiveness. But yeah singaporeans tend to be passive aggressive af, now that you mention it.
I live in Singapore, and because of that, I'm associated with Singaporeans.
I hate it because they're generally spoilt af, complaining all the time. They also tend to make fools of themselves overseas by being noisy and difficult. We're probably like this because Singapore is run in a really great way, and when compared to other countries, things may be slower or just done differently.
I try my best not to be like that and I will actively avoid Singaporeans if I see them overseas (you can tell by their accent and loud voices).
For me, it's not that I don't want to bother anyone. It's just that I'm an arrogant pos and I don't like to admit I don't know something until I've tried to figure it out myself. Kinda toxic, but this forced me to learn a lot of things by myself or via tutorials online.
Why is that not valid though? It's shoved in people's faces. Why can't they just have a normal relationship? Why bring it to the front and center?