What did "that one" person do to you which made you cut them out of your life?

Rusty@lemm.ee to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 170 points –

Or, alternatively, what did you do to another person which got you blacklisted from their life?

143

Long time friend turned out to be a sexist pos that was groping my female friends, but would only act this way when I had my back turned. I'm very glad my friends trust me enough to actually tell me what was happening. Am perfectly fine cutting that behaviour out of my life and my social circle.

This is so so so common. I guess we don't call people out for it more because we don't want to rock the boat with friend groups? Ass pats, leg squeezes, hugs that last a few seconds too long, ...

Am perfectly fine cutting that behaviour out of my life and my social circle.

This sentence feels so performative and cringey, and yet it still must be said aloud because even my ex-friend to this day defends a similarly shitty guy with a well-documented pattern of abuse.

Am perfectly fine cutting that behaviour out of my life and my social circle.

This sentence feels so performative and cringey, and yet it still must be said aloud because even my ex-friend still defends a similarly shitty guy with a well-documented pattern of abuse.

My dad broke up with his girlfriend, and was telling me this plan about fucking with her disability benefits, because she had gone for plastic surgery or some shit. He found this out from stalking her call logs.

I remember just pacing back and forward in my apartment trying to reason with him on the phone. "Dad, you can't do this kind of stuff.."

I talked him down, told him I loved him, and will always love him.

I don't know if it was the next day, but the next time we spoke on the phone he went right back into the same mindset. I couldn't handle it. Sometime after the call I sent a pretty harsh message that I didn't want to be involved with him. Haven't spoken to him since.

It's hard when you care about someone but they just hurt everyone around them.

Family started to make fun of my pronouns. I'm just tired of people choosing to be cruel for cruel sake. So I deleted Facebook, essentially cutting them out.

My mom refused to use pronouns and I'd given her 6 years to learn and grow, cut her out.

In the past, a coworker on purpose set up a birthday for one of my best friends and didn't invite me. They made up super weird reasons why I wasn't invited. I realized he was manipulative... I cut him out...

Another co-worker was a friend but then one day he wanted to start touching me. I don't like being touched. I kept asking him to stop, he did it more. Til one day he pushed me into a cold case (we worked at a grocery store). I cut him out.

Regardless of who I cut out though, there is ALWAYS room to come back if they change and grow up.

I'm still hoping my mom will before she passes... : /

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A girl I had been seeing for years, and thought I loved more than anything. After a lot of really intense drama that I honestly didn't think I'd survive, and the following analysis with a psychologist, I realised she'd been emotional manipulating me for a very long time.

When I finally cut her out, things just became so much better. I've learnt what a truely kind and loving person can be like, and what it's like to not walk on eggshells or have constant anxiety. So many seemingly innocent comments that in hindsight were insanely toxic controlling statements. It's been incredible to feel free.

Im glad you recognized the manipulation & got her out of your life. Emotional manipulation can be so hard to spot.

It's honestly one of those things I'll never stop doubting, there's a strong voice somewhere in my head telling me I'm wrong and being selfish.

Thankfully I've had enough therapy to know better, but that kind of manipulation really does have a good way of convincing you it's not there.

You're not alone in having this sort of story.

Speaking as someone else who survived an emotionally abusive relationship years ago (with gaslighting so successful that I had to start secretly recording our conversations on my phone to make sure they really happened the way I remembered and not the different story she would tell me later), successfully cut my ex out of my life and worked on myself, and am now happily in a truly wonderful and healthy marriage to an amazing person, congratulations on getting out.

I'm so damn happy to hear it worked out for you, that really gives me hope

It's an ongoing process. Therapy helps, as does a truly understanding partner.

When I started dating again, my past crappy experience ended up contributing to my now-wife and I hitting it off so well:

  • We both happened to have been through Some Shit before as these things go.
  • We shared understanding and sympathy about what it's like to be manipulated and treated poorly by toxic people.
  • We were both confident about what we were and were not interested in, and were comfortable asserting ourselves about our own needs as well as listening and accommodating one another's.
  • We were also both living independently and staying afloat on our own, so if our dating didn't work out ending the relationship wouldn't have cost either of us our home/job/etc. (In my abusive situation this had not been the case.)

I cut off a close friend of mine when I decided to get clean from heroin. I used to use drugs with him and he was my weed dealer. He never sold me heroin, but his friends did.

I feel bad because he messaged me 5 or 6 years later saying he got clean too and said he was sorry for anything he did. He honestly didn't do anything wrong, I just felt like I had to prioritize my sobriety.

I still haven't contacted him. He was my closest friend for years. I wonder how he's doing.

It's never too late to reach out, until it is. I think he will understand, and even if he doesn't, it's worth a shot.

I second this. It's your life and you don't have to, but it would not be too late to reach out. If you want you can explain that you had to cut ties to get clean. Chances are they had to do something similar and will understand. And you don't have to jump back into a friendship. Just wishing them well might still be good for both of you.

Good friend for 5 years or so. He turned into an alt-right fanatic and kept trying to make me upset by spouting "ideas" he knew not only I didn't agree with, by would actually emotionally upset me (e.g. All street animals should be sacrificed without mercy, all immigrants should be returned to their original county, etc). He pulled this shit at my birthday also, ruinning the night not only for me but everyone present. That was the last time I saw him.

Another friend of over 10 years. He met a guy with a very strong personality and started copying everything the other guy did. Started dressing like him, having the same ideas, etc. I didn't play along, so everything about my suddenly became the object of criticism as well. Never talked to him again.

Don't spend too much time worrying about a few street animals, or there won't be enough time to worry about the billions of farmed animals.

It's not an either-or. It's both. He also made fun of my veganism and made a point of enjoying eating dead, tortured animals, while making fun of me for caring.

Sorry, I was just being rhetorical. You encounter people accidentally expressing vegan values much more often than actual vegans.

It's not either-or, it's just a matter of triage and magnitude.

So what's your point then?I shouldn't worry about abandoned animals living in the street because that is taking away resources I could be directing into animals that suffer in farms/farming industry? All animals that suffer should be object of concern for anyone interested in animal well-being.

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there's been a few. my (very much evil) step-grandmother was visiting my home with the rest of the family for a weekend barbeque. there were two things that happened that day. First, fairly early on, a new neighbor had brought back this ceramic baking dish I had brought them cookies and lemon bars over in. It was nice of them (they come back about half the time. they're nice-ish, but not expensive baking dishes. our entire neighborhood bombards the new families with things. We even have it scheduled out for a couple months so they don't get tossed.)

in any case, the mother was bringing it back and happened to be muslim. My Step-grandmother yelled- intentionally loud enough to be heard by my new neighbor, "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO INVITE THAT DIRTY TOWEL HEAD IN, ARE YOU?" the neighbor bolted before I could apologize, (i've subsequently repaired that damage.) Then my grandfather bitched me out when I told her that it was my house, and I would invite any one in I wanted to invite, and if she has a problem, she can leave.

then, I came back inside to her call my partner a Slut. Because she was a single mother. my partner heard. And my daughter. I WENT BALLISTIC. we were pretty close to going no-contact already. but that alone was enough.

of course, the rest of the family thought I was the bad guy for a couple years- and I more or less put them all on no-contact because they kept trying to sneak them over for holidays. after being told explicitly not to do that and if they had an issue, they can host it and we won't come if they're there. so they had a big "intervention" over it and things got heated. "You shouldn't talk to people like that. What you said hurt" was the general gist of it. and that I should forgive the evil step grandma.

Ultimately, they decided to maybe leave it alone, because, why the hell are you talking to me. the conditions we set for them coming back have yet to be met. (Basically an apology. to me. and to my partner.) and I may have shamed my dad and brother because Evil Step Grandma shifted her vitriol to them. she was a truly vile person.

Me and my best friend of 10 years still talked regularly, but kept spending less time together. We talked about relationships a lot and basically both agreed that marriage is not really necessary for a successful relationship and that marrying is too easy to be dangerous in the sense that if it doesn't work out, you're likely going to be paying for the other person's lifestyle for no reason whatsoever.

Apparently we didn't though, because at one point he came out with that he has been seeing a girl the last few weeks and is going to marry her in a few weeks. I and the rest of his friends were like "um, we're happy for you, but are you sure you know who this person is and that you literally want to spend the rest of your life with her? It's only been a few weeks since you met her".

He didn't answer and blocked us all and completely disappeared. Last I heard they did have the wedding a few weeks later, dunno what happened after that. It was his first girlfriend ever, btw.

I agree. Marriage is pretty pointless - if you want to be with someone, go ahead. People shouldn't need legal or religious contracts to do that. This has been an unpopular opinion with people I've been relationships with, but "let's get married for tax benefits" isn't very romantic.

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This guy told me wife he was suicidal and my wife said to call her if he ever felt like that. So he started calling her all the time over the most petty non emergencies. Also he would tell her how he thought they were soul mates. Bear in mind, this isn't one of those "my now wife" stories, we were married. Not that it makes okay otherwise. The two of us were at his place for his birthday and I had gotten too drunk. I go to the bathroom thinking I'm going to throw up. Turns out he tried to make out with her while I was gone. That was basically the last straw. We didn't immediately cut him out after that but that was when we seriously began considering it.

It took so long because we were younger and more naive but also because he is super nice. He's the only person I've dealt with that is so nice and polite but also so toxic. He was so pathetic. He would just use his sadness to try and get everyone to give him more attention.

So we ghosted him. Just stopped asking for him to hang out and made excuses as to why we couldn't. Then just stopped reaching out. I don't feel bad about it either because he's used the threat of suicide to keep people close and gain attention before.

Got to drunk or got your drink spiked?

As much as I don't like the guy, I genuinely don't believe he'd do that. Basically the three of us ordered a pitcher of margaritas, maybe two, I don't remember. There never would've been a moment he was alone with my drink that he wasn't in front of my wife. It feels weird to defend someone I have a low opinion of, but no, I really don't believe he did or would have.

Yeah, I figured it likely there wasn't an opportunity.

The story made me curious if the guy created an opportunity was all.

Suicidal tendencies tend to throw a wrench into things...

Makes a hard situation much more difficult.

She left us. And hey, if you don't want to be in someone's life, you have the right to just leave. And I'm not saying she should have stayed, if she wanted to go. All I'm saying is, maybe your kids deserve at least a hug goodbye, mom. Or maybe even a note? Especially since we didn't have a dad either?

That's so heavy, how did you two stabilize yourselves after she left?

Stabalize? Hahaha what's that? Seriously though, even typing it here makes me want to cry. How do you get over your mom (and dad) not wanting you?

We did the best we could, grew up, and built our own families. And you better be damn sure my kids don't leave the house or go to bed without me giving them hugs and kisses and telling them I'll miss them/love them. They might go "daaaaaad" and sigh like I'm being super embarrassing and wasting their time, but when I'm dead and gone, they'll never wonder if they did something wrong to make me not love them.

Whew, I think I need to go look at some funny videos or something after that! I wasn't expecting to get teary on Lemmy at work!

Sexually assaulted someone very close to me.

Then also later finding out it had also happened to other people. Disgusting, despicable person who is a drain on society, and I'm extremely happy they are out of my life and, much more importantly, the lives of those more directly harmed.

After becoming a gun nut, They told me it was "ok" to keep a load glock under their pillow (they were paranoid as fuck) because their 5 year old son wasn't strong enough to cycle the slide to chamber a bullet...

The funny thing about kids is they keep growing and parents never know where the time goes.

This is a long one. My shitty first roommate and now former friend. It was originally supposed to be three of us living together, with my then best friend, but she convinced me that best friend was too financially irresponsible. In retrospect, she just wanted the validation of me choosing her.

Unbeknownst to me, she was extremely emotionally unstable and became dependent on me to keep her level. Lots of crying and big fights over nothing significant. I put my foot down after a couple of months and told her I was moving out if she didn't get her shit together. The next day, she faked a suicide attempt with aspirin and vitamin C pills. I came home to a trail of them from the front door back to her bedroom. Not knowing at the time what she had taken, I called 911 and she was taken to the hospital. The hospital offered to set her up with psychiatric care but she declined.

I insisted she needed to get help but she refused, so I started discretely looking for a new place to live. Word got back to her I was doing so, so cue fake suicide attempt number two. I came home to a similar trail of pills, just to find her bedroom empty this time. Turns out she slammed a bottle of NyQuil and threw down a bunch of vitamin C. She became incredibly ill and called an ambulance before I got there.

I met her in the hospital while she was getting her stomach pumped. She was pretty messed up from the NyQuil and told me she tried to kill herself because I wasn't supportive enough. The literal quote was "I wouldn't have tried to do this if you were a better friend." When the doctor came around and offered to set her up with the local psychiatric hospital, I convinced her to accept. The NyQuil probably helped ease that through.

I moved out a few days later, while she was still institutionalized. I visited her in the hospital and gave her the news there, where she was being watched and presumably medicated. She lost her shit. After being released, she went on the war path, telling mutual friends I abandoned her after emotionally abusing her. We haven't talked since.

This conservative and I kind of had a truce where one of us would explain in detail our perspective on a situation (this was in 2019) and the other would try to rebut or sometimes just learn about something we hadn't heard before since we ran in different circles.

This went on for months and it was a pretty interesting series of a couple dozen conversations at least. We shared contact information and even texted each other when we found relevant articles that may influence the other, being as objective as a political article could be.

One time, he asked me to provide him with a list of everything Trump had done since he was sure that every single thing Trump was being blamed for was politically motivated and unsubstantial.

So I went through one of those megalists online, and only cherry picked a few dozen of the things Trump himself had signed, like raising the limit of allowable mercury disposal in the. I got through about 4 legislative actions that Jeff checked on his phone, then for the first time, Jeff interrupted me and told me to stop talking and insisted that these were all politically motivated slights and not actually trump's responsibility.

I pointed out that Trump had signed every single item on this list and these were only his actions as president that directly harmed Americans, and Jeff said that schools were in danger because the DOE was distributing sexually explicit books in elementary schools.

That threw me since obviously we weren't talking about that at all (and it was easy to show Jeff that that was like three schools in the whole country that were having discussions about explicit sexual education books in elementary schools, rather than the nationwide curricular upheaval he thought it was).

Jeff said he had to go, left, said it was great talking to me again, and then literally every subsequent time for the next 2 months I saw him at places we used to both frequent, would put his hands on his hips, look around as if there were more than three people at the track, saunter back to his truck and drive off. I even waved a couple of times and said "hey!" and he just pretended like he didn't see me from maybe 20 feet away.

You done broke his brain! Cognitive dissonance hits hard.

Whole lot of people here have cut off other people, but no one's yet shared a story about what got them cut off. This one's mine.

I was unceremoniously removed from The List by a group of folks I was close with for years, after clashing with a couple of new additions to the group for a few months. We collectively ran a bit of a sketchy party scene and had been hosting stuff out of the weird end of town for a year or two when it all blew up - we weren't quite on the scale of underground warehouse raves, but we were like the training-wheels version. We'd get a lead on a place that was slated to be vacant for a month or a commercial building gone dark, arrange a couple bands and an escape plan, and pull a couple hundred bucks each in entry charge and dodgy beer.

They were great friends in addition to being sort-of in business together, and we had some absolutely great times.

Except one couple who'd been with us from the start and were OG team members met a new crowd of people. They wanted to bring their friends, we said sure, and ... shit started going downhill. The couple weren't bad. Their friends weren't bad. Their friends' friends were awful. I didn't like the new crowd's vibe, I didn't like who they were bringing in, what they were up to, and I didn't get along with the initial connections in the slightest. I thought they were assholes, they thought I was an asshole, and in hindsight we were both correct.

As much as each new member of our little scene was more money at the end of an event, I didn't want them there. I spent a lot of time and everyone's patience arguing why I felt these specific new people needed to be shown a door and firmly told to be on the other side of it, and I definitely went out of my way to cut them out of anything I had control over. My friends were frustrated, I was frustrated, and everyone was on edge - I was convinced these people were going absolutely ruin what we'd built, my friends were frustrated I wouldn't drop the grudge and didn't see the problem I was focused on.

In my defense, the new people were bringing in their crowd, and their crowd was bad news. It was like they were the scene where all the people other parties didn't want wound up congregating. There was the sketchy "why are you here?" old dudes, there were the people who did too much of many drugs even for our standards, there was the massive collection of edgy at-risk middleschoolers, there were the aggro bros and the dealers with Connections ... to me, inviting those people in the door was a massive heat score and absolutely ruining the vibe for the kind of people we wanted to attract. That said, in my friends' defense - we had agreed we'd make decisions as a team, and I was outvoted but unwilling to let it go; and we didn't have a problem with drugs or kids or even weird old dudes in general - half of us started in that community young and most absolutely dabbled in chemicals. We all were those kids a few years prior. My concerns read as hypocritical or gatekeep-y, rather than genuine, because I'd never been concerned about that shit prior.

The last straw? I paid a guy I knew from the other side of town to drive his dad's charger slowly past our venue a couple times, for several different events, so that people thought we might be about to get raided. Because the people I didn't care for were pretty dodgy, they fucked off at the faintest hint of trouble.

The other people in our crew found out, and I was excised from that group.

In hindsight, we were both right. I was petty and sabotaged the group to get my way - and those new people did absolutely ruin shit for that scene within a couple years. I've connected individually with a few members of that group over the many years since, but am very formally persona non grata at shit they do as a group - I don't think any of the people I still talk to even admit to the rest that they see me sometimes.

I don't want this to read like I was booted for taking some moral highground. I absolutely wasn't. I took the low road and went behind my friends' backs to undermine what we were doing, all because I wanted a specific group of people gone from our scene. As much as an adult's perspective would make it easy to spin this as if I had moral objections to bringing hard drugs and hard druggies and middleschoolers into the same place for underground parties - I wasn't concerned about those things, morally. Having middleschoolers get wasted at parties wasn't a problem to me, or even having creepy dudes trying to pick them up, or people shooting hard shit in the living room ... I just didn't like how there was more of "them" than "us" and our events were slowly becoming that scene, instead of just having a little bit of it off in one corner.

My best friend punched me in the face and busted my nose because he got caught cheating on his gf.

Cheaters don't tend to be good people whatsoever. Maybe he thought you would tell this to his girlfriend which mean you have some principles. Good job!

My brother's wife. During the start of the pandemic (six months in?), she threw a Facebook hissy fit, declaring COVID to be nothing more than a bad cold. She declared the real killers as gluten and 5G. She was vehemently against mandatory vaccination (much freedom!), but would turn around and use her next breath to demand the gov't ban gluten from foods and the 5G rollout.

Called her crazy and haven't talked to her since.

He tried to punch me in the face. Fortunately he missed, but he did manage to pull my shirt so hard that it left a red mark in my neck.

Some background: That guy has a long history of using illegal drugs, and that thing has gradually damaged his head over the years. Consequently, he now suffers from paranoia and a long list of very very bad decisions in general. He suddenly felt that I owe him some money, and got really mad when I said I’m not going to pay up. It’s a long story… I haven’t seen him since that incident.

I guess that person has to be my ex. We were together for a long time and were even planing a life together. We were expecting a child, which sadly ended in a stillbirth. Then by sheer coincidence I find out she has been texting some very questionable things to her "best friend" and her ex bf. Turns out she was fucking both of them while I was on cloud nine and thought we had something special. When I confronted her about it she talked about her not being able to continue without me, fully knowing I had a depressive and even suicidal past. When I packed my stuff she called the god damn cops and told them I hit her or some shit. Luckily enough they saw what was unfolding when they arrived and only talked to me for like an hour and let me go. I never talked to her again and cut her out of my life on the spot.

After talking to my relatives and friends about her, they all told me they thought she was a psycho bitch but didn't wanna ruin it. I stopped talking to all my "friends" from that time, and even my mother for a while, because I felt like they should have told me that I was making the biggest mistake of my life. I still do in fact.

In retrospective I know now that it was one of the worst times of my life and I am lucky to have dodged that bullet. Though I needed therapy and a lot of time to leave all of that behind.

Have you ever tried telling a friend that you didn't like their partner and they should not be together? They are much more likely to get mad at you and stop talking with you than they are to leave their partner. Just search the advice columns on 'how to tell a friend their partner is bad'. Every one is filled with comments like "I did that and they got mad at me", or "we told her and she ignored us and keeps going back". I'm not really surprised nobody intervened.

I wonder if you were mostly angry at yourself for being in that situation. Maybe angry you could be so foolish or naive. Then you projected that anger onto your friends and family. Anyways, I'm glad you made it through that period.

Guy was my best friend in middle school. We reconnected after I graduated from college, played and beat L4D and L4D2 together. Then he started sending me political memes, and they were all fascist.

I tried to reason with him, but then he refused to engage with anything that was longer than like a page, or any video/audio source longer than about five minutes, but didn't seem to have any problem sending me stuff way longer than that.

I still wonder if there was more I could have done. But I just didn't need that in my life. I'm not some hero, I'm a downwardly-mobile working-class schlub who's pretty good at playing piano and riding a bike. I shouldn't be responsible for dragging this dipshit back from the depths of fascism just because he sat next to me in seventh grade history class, and honestly, with some of the things he claimed to believe, I probably didn't even want him on my side anymore.

That's what I tell myself, anyway.

You did good. Don't underestimate how valuable just telling a leer their behavior is unacceptable is. So many folks with horrible views have them in part because no one is challenging them.

I think it's kind of a lost cause most of the time. My parents spend hours a day watching fox news and right wing youtubers. I'm not going to change their minds, I don't have the time. You aren't going to offset however much time his beliefs are getting reinforced with whatever time you spend with him.

If not you, then who?

I don't think it's your responsibility to cure him, but as somone close to him I think it's your responsibility to try, because if not you then who? But it sounds like you did that to some extent

Oh, I did. I argued with him for months, and he just kept getting more and more toxic and more and more spiteful.

My mother was mad my wife didn’t want to wake my daughter up to give her a bottle, she and my grandma didn’t like that we fed her broccoli since she didn’t have many teeth to chew it…my son was also on the low end of weight…finally had to switch to formula off of breast milk as it wasn’t fatty enough. Reported us to CPS. Relationship never recovered even though I feel I gave her way too many chances to respect our boundaries after that.

In college, I had bought this used bicycle worth substantially more for 50 bucks. I was really happy with it and rode it every day.. My roommate, who up until this incident was becoming a very good friend, told his friend visiting our dorm while I wasn't in the room, that he could take my bike. That other guy never returned my bike, and my roommate kept insisting that it wasn't a big deal since I got the bike for $50.

I stopped talking to him after that for the rest of the semester unless it was to remind him to get my bike back or pay me back. Which, of course, never happened.

During COVID, one of my in-laws was strongly anti-lockdown and anti vaccine, while I was pro lockdown and pro vaccine.

I made a point of not replying to anything to he posted, and would curtly respond to him when he responded to me.

He kept sending me the trashiest anti-anything messages via DM, but appeared to stop when I asked him to.

2 weeks later, he sent me another. I reminded him he promised to not send me these anymore, to which he responded first apologizing, and then threatening me because my (then fiancee, now wife) was eligible for an early vaccine due to working in the medical field. Basically saying "well, when she's hurt from the vaccine, and she will get hurt from it, Im coming for you"

Of course, my wife is as much pro-vaccine as I am, and was bragging to friends that she got it early.

I shared the screenshots of the threat around, blocked him. Havnt talked to him since and I think most of the in-laws family have done the same.

Props to you for setting up boundaries and enforcing them. And for cutting them off when they didn't stop after multiple warnings.

I had to draw the line with some members of my family after they joined some christian cult and started to pressure me to "see the light". Fortunately for me it was enough to just do that.

Called me while driving across the country to help keep himself from falling asleep. This was fine with me. I'll have a chat with you while you drive.

Then proceeded to fill me in on everything going on in his life for an hour and ended the call. He never asked how I was or gave me a chance to fill him in on my life since we'd last spoke. I already knew he was self-centered, but I was still in shock when the call ended.

Just be a toxic person to talk and be around. Horrible really. Constantly felt less-than.

Final year of my college degree a friend of mine asked if he could stay with me. He had been kicked out of a couple other universities and finally begged his way into one where I was currently living.Told him I didn't want drama or partying in my place.

Guy would routinely show up stoned, started getting his parents to bug me about getting him a loan, general disruptive behavior. Lying, telling my gf (now wife) one thing then telling me something different.

Came to a head when I got a call during a night class, he had come home drunk or stoned or whatever and began telling my gf he was thinking about killing himself. Now when my wife was younger she had attempted suicide so this struck a chord with her. I of course raced home and we took him into a hospital to get him some help. He proceeded to tell the doctors something completely different and was sent home with us.

Kicked him out as soon as he found a new place to stay. Haven't seen or talked to him since.

Did the rest of the family not believe she said the things she said or were they fine with it? Calling someone a filthy towel head is pretty unambiguously racist and not in the old timey grandparent way either.

One of my best friends from childhood ended up on heroin shortly after I moved away with my bf (now husband). We still talked occasionally through FB or Insta, but a few years ago we lost touch, and shortly after that my mom sent me a newspaper article about his arrest. They found CP on his phone and computer.. I refuse to write to him. Despite growing up together. That's a connection I'm glad to cut, no matter the circumstance.

My father and paternal grandmother chose to be homophobic when I (and my cousin) both came out of the closet. "We'll pray for your soul, but you're going to hell." My childhood was bad enough, but to be told that after coming out was the final straw. I haven't spoken to either of them in years. I don't even know if she's alive anymore.

My (53m) idiot older brothers (61 and 59 respectively).

The oldest decided to scam me and the middle brother out of our shares of the family farm. It's not a huge amount of money, but the fact he did what he did is enough.

My middle brother informed me, at Thanksgiving 2 years ago, that he was a member of the oath keepers and that essentially he was the new patriarch of the family. All of my political beliefs are bullshit and I had to subscribe to the right wingnut bullshit he adhered to. Military this and guns that. The stupid fuck was in the army for 6 years back in the 80's.

Haven't spoken to either of those assholes in years, nor will I ever again.

Only reaches out when they want a hookup for weed, and once they find another source they ghost me. Even though we went to HS together and he says he’s my friend. Fuck that guy

Example 1. (My favorite) During the 2020 election, after Biden took the lead and looked to be the projected winner, "friend" at the time said quite confidently "Let the recount begin!" and then after [Trump] lost, she sent me one word replies. I also found out later she had a cardboard cut out/was taken in front of a picture of Trump. Example 2. (recent) During an acquaintance's birthday she said the hard n word for no reason at all. It wasn't even warranted. Nor was she driving. I set a boundary after that saying, you use that term in front of me again, we will not hang out. I don't hang out with racists.

Nor was she driving.

What's the significance of this? Is it mildly less frowned upon to be horrifically racist if you're driving?

The persons who aggravate anxiety and depression. But maybe this is not so good sometimes...

Two separate people, and it was them being alcoholics.

Stole money from another friend after inviting them to a party at that friend’s (the victim’s) house

Did the family not believe she said those things or were they fine with it?

They did the silent treatment on me for a long time.

My friend who was an insurance agent, wanted me to take insurance policy from the company he worked, so he could get a commission.

I said I'm not interested. He sent a video where a truck lost control hit the median of a road then dump all of its load on a car and said it can happen to me.

I said f**k off. That was the last time I contacted him.

I constantly block people on the Internet based on the content they deliver, how they answer, whether they are logical and polite, or leap straight to manipulations, lies and insults.

Some think it's a radical approach, but I don't see it that way. For all its capabilities, the Internet isn't real and neither are the relationships we have with people on numerous sites that form its social aspect. Thus, there's really little logic in giving people second chances, wasting time, attention and effort for them, trying to get through their attitudes and suffering to reach "real" them.

It's like "you have the chance to be polite and reasonable - resign from this chance, and I'm gonna resign from you".

And yet, your comment history.

You checked! ❤️

What do you do about those people who have spent a lifetime crafting how to best piss in someone's face while still superficially appearing reasonable and polite? Myself, I tell them to go eat a fuck. They're not as clever or nearly as decent as they work so hard to believe. It's just a device that allows them to feel superior and discount others. That's why it's so loved by narcissists.

Family, friends are special people in our lives and so they get special treatment. They aren't just any people you can throw away, sever ties with and block. If the relationship between you evolved into ping-pong of requests and demands, it's unhealthy relationship and you need to put the effort and at least try to make it work. It works both way - the same is expected of them.

You may fail at that, they may fail at that, you all mail fail, unfortunately, but this is in no way the reason to feel good about it, no "victory", no "yay!" achievement.

To see people announcing in public that they got rid of their closest family because they "didn't respect my pronouns", said in a scornful tone... No. This is wrong. It's a clear indication of a flawed life.

You may think otherwise, you may disagree - I have no problem with that, feel free to go about your way, while clicking "block user". But don't argue with me that I am wrong about my thinking, because there are no arguments that will change my opinion on this topic.

Surely you must see that each case is nuanced and having a blanket statement for everyone is just naive? Saying "you must work hard at your family relationships simply because they are family" is just as generalized as "you have the agency to block out family members when they wrong you."

The world is shades of grey and having a staunch, polarized opinion is limiting oneself.

Surely you must see that each case is nuanced

I am well aware of that.

But I'm also aware of the fact that everyone has enough time to present their story in the Internet with all the nuances included. Nobody in the Internet is obliged to be a telepath - the correct framing of the story is its author's responsibility. If they choose to be scornful towards their own family with "they didn't accept my pronouns" as the only argument, then they deserve as much scorn too.

Dat echo chamber

Sometimes, you gotta step back and look at all the long-ass comment chain you spent arguing with that one idiot who just won’t accept any logic you throw their way, and wonder whether or not your time would be better spent if you just never had to see their ignorant nonsense ever again.

Some think it’s a radical approach, but I don’t see it that way. For all its capabilities, the Internet isn’t real and neither are the relationships we have with people on numerous sites that form its social aspect. Thus, there’s really little logic in giving people second chances, wasting time, attention and effort for them, trying to get through their attitudes and suffering to reach “real” them.

You're absolutely correct.

I think that saying that someone "failed at life" is a bit stupid because, they would do exactly what you recommend in your own comment; they would give friends & family a second chance:

Regardless of who I cut out though, there is ALWAYS room to come back if they change and grow up.

I’m still hoping my mom will before she passes… : /

Maybe you see things differently, but perhaps there is something more interesting and constructive you could say than: "You both failed at life."

Of course, arguing online is pretty fun... haha! :)

Maybe you see things differently, but perhaps there is something more interesting and constructive you could say than: “You both failed at life.”

I certainly see things differently. I see a person who wastes time in the Internet instead of trying to fix what absolutely should be fixed - it's not that we have all the time in the world to make things right. Look at the part you quoted - "before she passes". The guy realizes that the mother may die, but still, talking crap on the Internet seems to him like the better choice to spend the precious time left on.

For me, selecting Internet upvotes, virtual handshakes and high fives by random, anonymous nobodes, over family is certainly within the definition of "failed at life", and I'd sooner bite my own tongue off rather than approach such a person with "interesting and constructive" words.

Of course, arguing online is pretty fun…

Definitely! 🧐