Responding to cruelty with more cruelty doesn't teach anyone not to be cruel. It just normalizes cruelty.
The term is poverty of imagination. Something is either extremely concrete, right there in front of their eyes, or they don't get it, and get annoyed with you pretty quickly if you try to make them use their imaginations to understand your point. Nothing they do or say is original. It's copied whole cloth from other people and media that they like. Other people's originality strikes them as annoying randomness. If you ask for any kind of unusual request or special consideration, this breaks their brain, and they usually jump to the conclusion you're trying to cheat them. This is both a safe conclusion to jump to if you're not very bright, and a legitimization for expressing the frustration they feel for not being able to follow what the hell you're trying to say, and your failure to just fall in line and be no trouble to them.