> People also think that putting a period at the end of a text message is rude

Yes, this is essentially the kind of thing that I was thinking of. It's nutty.

I submit that anyone who assuming malice on the part of the sender without ANY direct evidence to support it likely has some trust issues to work out with their therapist. I started out my adult life being deeply distrustful of basically everyone and it took a LONG time to learn that (lacking direct evidence) assuming the best in people's intentions makes you a lot happier and gets you a lot farther in life.

I'm also reminded of the saying, "offense is taken, not given."