I appreciate you sharing the story. There's a difference between characterizing a specific reaction as weak and calling a person weak.
There's also a natural human tendency to overlook horrors when they are abstract and "data" which is why "5000 dead" is a statistic, but that kid around the corner who died is a tragedy.
The word "milquetoast" specifically criticizes a man as weak, timid, unasertive, or childish. If that's not your intention, you're misusing the word.
It's not equivalent to saying "this is a weak reaction".
You may have preferred I reacted more severely to what I observed, but I, like everyone, must pick my battles and this particular one was and is not a priority for me. And if it were a priority, I wouldn't go about combating it at such an individual level - this is just a symptom of the profit-driven system. Just look at Purdue and the opiod crisis they've created by lying to doctors and consumers, and how rich and powerful they've become in the process. The behavior is rewarded systemically.
There's also a natural human tendency to overlook horrors when they are abstract and "data" which is why "5000 dead" is a statistic, but that kid around the corner who died is a tragedy.