I haven't seen people who do that, though.

Exactly. She’s literally been tortured since birth and been treated as an experiment for almost all her life. Troy went really far and Mike was really brave, but El nearly scarified herself almost every season trying to destroy the Upside Down and save Hawkins. Give her a break.

In my opinion, the issue with that scene is that El just kinda pushed Mike’s feelings to the side. Of course, El went through more than Mike (she literally grew up in a lab), but that does not mean that Mike didn’t go through a lot of stuff too. It’s important to note the context of the scene also - El and Mike have this discussion because of how Angela is treating her. In comparison to Mike being forced into almost killing himself by Troy, Angela’s actions towards El are pretty tame. I think that if they were talking about El’s earlier life/time in the lab, then it would be wrong for Mike to say that he knows how she feels. But when they’re talking about bullies like Angela, El saying “you don’t get it” comes off as super ignorant,

^ I think just judging from their whole lives, El's been through a lot more than Mike. But like everyone says, Mike's been through a lot to.

What she said was ignorant on some level, but truthfully El is already on the edge of emotional breakdown with Hopper "dead" and moving away from Hawkins-and by "you don't get it", I don't think she only meant Angela, but also growing up not knowing who you are, having your father figure gone in your life, being humiliated when you're already at your lowest and being on the edge emotionally. Plus, the party's full of teenagers. They're going through puberty, so they're pretty much proven to care less for others and be kind of self-centered---but good reasoning!

Also don't forget Mike probably had to go through a lot of arguing since his parents don't really love each other and that's horrible for a child, don't get me wrong Eleven had to go through some really bad shit, but I know how it feels to grow up with a family arguing. But yes Eleven did go through a lab but she didn't get tortured neither did Mike. Please don't come at me once I say this, but in my opinion Brenner was just trying to the best for Eleven and I do think it's pretty shitty to lock her in that room in s1 and to do a lot of it to find Henry.

I'd argue that is torture tho. Being locked in a small enclosed space can be awful, especially for hours on end. Shortly after she escaped and was at Mike's house, El couldn't even close the door. She was terrified of being left alone in the dark again. It's psychological torture. On top of that, she was ordered to do things she didn't feel comfortable doing. Like hurting animals and looking for pple in the Upside Down, where she ended up getting freaked out by the demogorgon.

And Kali was also tazed as a child so I think that implies that El might have been tazed before as well. Which is indeed torture. Brenner may somewhat care for Eleven and the other children at the lab but he traumatized her so much.

^^I feel like a lot of people relate to Mike having family problems, but not many have problems like growing up in a lab and getting kidnapped at birth. El could’ve grown up with Terry(or, with Averhoes’s new theory, perhaps not and some other mother…) and lived a normal, happy life. Brenner took that life away from her, and basically drained all the life out of Terry as well. The conclusion to this is probably that they’ve both been through a lot, and they’re having trouble expressing all their trauma to each other. Hopefully, they’ll start really opening up to each other in Season 5.