I actually got an email like from an old co-worker after I was fired. It was done much in the vein of the advice in this post. It was short, friendly, and made no pretence about staying in touch. I gave a short, friendly response and that was that. I gotta say I actually really did appreciate it, and still do. Of course, I wasn’t exactly upset about being fired so I don’t know if this counts.
Agreed. The blog post starts off fairly well, with step 1 to being a good human being, but pivots ironically at the end to a list of ways not be a human being.
It feels more like how to do the minimum possible without doing absolutely nothing.
You might have been interested in continuing the conversation if the other person didn't descend into trash-talking first. I think that's the message the author is trying to convey.
But I agree with you that "I can't continue this conversation" is probably not the best way to respond, even in that case.
This person has been let go and you're reaching out _to them_.
If you don't care about the person and their emotions, don't say anything. Nobody else will know otherwise (other than the person you clearly don't actually care about). Feigning care is sometimes worse than just clearly not caring at all.