It is an exercise in power, a pale imitation of O'Brian in 1984:
>Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in shapes of your own choosing.
I think that is the intention behind their social discourse, to be painful. To disagree. To prove that they are superior.