tl;dr: have a friend who has historically always been mad when his friends got a gf/wife. He acts like he’s 15 years old and saying “bros before hoes” still. He calls me and other friends a yuppie or breeder, and he thinks crosswalks are authoritarian so he has to always be a “rebel” and make it seem like he has the most unique viewpoint in the world. He doesn’t change anything about himself, and he’s stubbornly proud of having “no filter.” This has caused every wife/gf of his friends to not like him. He will never be invited to any kind of social event because he will say stupid shit. Like, nobody has to be a rabid commie all the fucking time. Him and my gf got into a huge fight because he always talks like an asshole, and i live with my gf, so he doesnt come to my house at all because he’ll say some shit. He still brings up this fight when im around him, and it’s like get the fuck over it. I basically don’t share anything about my life that involves my partner now, because he’ll say something fucking stupid about her. He also begins a lot of sentences with “well” or “actually” which is never helpful. He literally can’t admin when he is wrong, even about the simplest shit.

This really all seemed to get worse once I started my current long term relationship, and then it got way worse when my gf got sick of his shitty attitude and how he treats everyone like an asshole. He literally just can’t be chill at all. No leftist(or similar) should be ranting constantly about every single injustice during every single social situation. That is exhausting to be around, and there is a time and place for it, but there has to be an ability to switch that shit off.

Finding and keeping relationships requires changing yourself just a bit, and making compromises, and it’s now become apparent he isn’t capable of that.

related question: have you ever dumped a long time friend? This is all a somewhat recent change, like the past 3-4 years, and it really seems to be because im in a relationship like most of our friend group, so now he’s totally alone. Ive heard him say he’s in therapy but i have to wonder if that’s true, because it clearly isn’t working. I’m annoyed by him but I pity him too because he can’t fucking change for anybody at all.

    • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      He’s right though, jaywalking didn’t even exist until the past few decades. How the fuck are feds going to make a law just to harass minorities crossing the street, and just have everybody be cool with it?

      Pedestrians should always have right of way.

        • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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          8 months ago

          https://marker.medium.com/the-invention-of-jaywalking-afd48f994c05

          History of Jaywalking. Tldr: roads used to be for public use. Yes, crosswalks and safe places to cross the road good. But the fact is that urban streets used to be places for people, not cars. Jaywalking as a crime only exists to make people hate pedestrians just crossing a street. I live in bumfuck nowhere, where everything is completely car dependant. There are no crosswalks on many intersections, or they can be up to a mile away from where you actually need to cross the road. Why should it be considered a legal requirement to be in a car to be on 90 percent of local property?

            • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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              No, I am not against cross walks, nor did I ever say that. You’re working with shit I didn’t say. You’re making assumptions about what I’m advocating for with no real base for it. I literally even said crosswalks were good in that paragraph, so this isn’t even in good faith now.

              All I am saying is that crosswalk enforcement in my bumfuck middle of nowhere American existence, I have only ever seen black people getting harassed for crossing the road in the wrong area. Why is it illegal to cross an empty street not on the crosswalk? Why is it considered acceptable that a law like jaywalking widely used to harass minorities to be upheld? How are carefully enforced crosswalks even helping people not get ran over? Are cops saving lives by harassing minorities for crossing the street in the wrong spot?

              • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                I did ask if that was what you were saying. See here:

                Are you suggesting some idealistic abolishment of currently-existing crosswalks with nothing else changed about the present system first so people get run over in even larger numbers with clarity in their hearts about how they should have had right of way?

                Otherwise contextually you just seemed to have a chip on your shoulder against @Cummunism@hexbear.net and now it’s spread toward me.

    • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      8 months ago

      know what else is authoritarian? youtube making people pay to remove ads. He will literally apply it to anything. Wants the revolution, doesn’t want to be authoritarian. Failed revolutions are cool!

    • i mean the law is authoritarian in general but that’s kind of its point also. I share OP’s frustration with their friend though, some people really don’t read situations well or know how to interact without alienating themselves

  • daisy@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    related question: have you ever pretty much cut ties with someone after knowing them for a long ass time?

    Yes. A friend I’d known for decades, from primary school. I’d just learned that I’d acquired a 10-year-old step-niece. My sister had started living with her now-current-husband/then-boyfriend. He had custody of his daughter due to the biological mom making a very long string of very bad decisions. I told my friend about this and how much I was looking forward to being the awesome-cool uncle I knew I could be, to this bright kind kid with some lingering trauma.

    The first words out his mouth were “Is she cute? Is her mom hot?”

    So in the span of about a second I realized I needed to go no-contact with my childhood friend.

    (Step-niece grew up to be a professional nurse, and has been making a long string of very good personal-life decisions, and has become the kindest gentlest playfullest aunt of her own to her toddler niece.)

      • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        We called it the paraphilic continuum in Crim Psych.

        And yeah. It’s not a road to go down. I know some pretty disturbing statistics. Maybe one day I’ll make a post about them. But I’d have to CW the whole thread.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          I would seriously appreciate some links detailing that sort of thing because online, including on Hexbear, sometimes people show up with dogmatic statements that their entertainment, no matter how horrifyingly creepy/violent or children-targeting (cartoon or otherwise) has no effect on them and that everyone would have an absolutely identical chance of being a sex offender at any given time if no such material was available. Some even make the “venting” claim about it being somehow therapeutic/preventive for possible offenders.

          • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            It’s been like 18 years but I can do some digging and see if I can find some academic sources. I mostly studied serial killers.

            I can tell you this off the top of my head:

            Extreme CW:

            spoiler

            If a serial rapist begins to use a knife or scissors to remove clothing the chance that they will murder their victim go way up. Like you got 2-3 victims before they start cutting and stabbing as part of their assault.


            It’s some grim shit. I had to stop studying it because it was fucking with my head. It’s why I can’t do all that “True Crime” shit. It’s a Nietzschean fucking abyss I’d rather not gaze into.

            • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              It’s why I can’t do all that “True Crime” shit.

              I can understand that. I’ve yet to know anyone into “True Crime” entertainment that was someone I’d actually want to voluntarily be around.

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    He sounds bitter that he’s still single while all his friends have a girlfriend/partner, and there’s definitely some self sabotaging behaviour occuring because of that. Like thinking he’s better than anyone else and refusing to change. That way he stays single, can continue being/playing an arsehole, and doesn’t need to do introspection or ask himself some hard questions. I know I’ve phrased that really crudely, but sometimes you need to call a spade a spade.

    Other than trying to tell him this somehow and let him connect the dots himself, there’s not much you can do.

    • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      exactly, nobody wanting to go on more than one date shows a lot, and when they don’t want to go out again it’s their fault because they don’t accept his shitty teen-like behavior. No woman wants to date a manchild.

      When him and my gf had a fight, i even said to him “do you think our other friends wives/gfs like you? cause they don’t.” I named one friends wife in particular(call him Dave), and i found out later he texted/called Dave in disbelief that his wife wouldnt like him. Daves wife and my friend got into a fight over a situation years ago where he just had to be abrasive and shitty, and Daves wife definitely still hates him. Also if i told Dave some of the shit my “friend” said about his wife behind his back, he’d cut him off totally.

      The worst part is i dont even want to tell him, because i know he’ll just dig in further about his shitty attitude and how it’s the world with a problem and not him. I really don’t even know what to do except avoid going out with him.

        • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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          that would just take bravery on my part, because it’s just gonna end up into some fight about how i’ve changed because im in a relationship. It will never be a problem that he is causing, it’s always external forces to blame. He’s 16 years old in the brain, so if i don’t take his side or my gfs side, i’ve betrayed him.

          • the_itsb [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            It sounds like you’ve done all you can.

            It’s not your job to fix your friend - that’s his job.

            A friendship is not a deposition - you don’t have to tell him everything.

            It sounds like you’ve brought up all these issues with him previously to no avail - it’s totally fine to just distance yourself now.

            If he realizes you’re less available and confronts you, you can tell him that spending time with him is stressful for the reasons you’ve previously brought up, and you haven’t been up to dealing with the additional stress. This leaves an opening for him to at least attempt to behave more like a friend engaging in mutual care than a personified rant, and gives you an out for ending visits when he does not.

        • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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          most of the time it was someone he met in a real life event. as far as i can tell he had pretty much zero success at getting any dates on any apps. i never saw his bio, or the chats, but i can only assume he threw up flags right away just because he has to say too much too fast. anymore im pretty sure he doesnt even try to find dates now, i think he’s internally accepted he’ll never like someone enough to make compromises.

  • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    Yeah. I was friends with a person for years. Would stand up for her when people talked bad behind her back. Supported her transition.

    Then one day she ghosted me. Which is fine, we all got our lives but I liked our hangouts and kinda left it open if she ever wanted to reconnect. Later on I found out she went all ‘truescum’ and it was such a ladder pull. I was done. Good riddance.

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        Pretty much. Like you couldn’t actually be trans without hormones and surgeries. Pretty shit take. I never wanted to deal with her shit again.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      I wonder if there’s something to the price of transitioning surgery that makes some people go “truescum” over it because they want their investment to feel special and exclusive over the rabble.

      • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        I’ve thought about that angle myself. Oh, so nobody was trans before modern medicine? Two-Spirits in Native culture were just playing pretend? Poor people can’t be trans? What’s next? Too old to transition? The argument has so many holes you could use it for a colander.

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          Truescum are a lot like the fairweather “progressive” gay people that kicked the ladder down and went MAGA the moment gay marriage was federally protected.

        • RedQuestionAsker2 [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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          I think a lot of trans people want so badly for there to be an objective measure of when you should be considered a particular gender.

          To them, the gender spectrum being a sliding scale leaves them open to accusations of “not really” being their preferred gender. Medicalism, which is not an objective measure, at least approaches a level of objectivity that can provide more structure and “proof” than cultural approaches.

      • kristina [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        its really crazy. i like to think a lot of them grow out of it, the pain of surgery can kinda fuck your head up for a couple of years sometimes

        • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          I know that heart surgeries have a well documented history of often permanently altering many patients’ personalities (not like the patient often had a choice in the matter, but still). I wouldn’t be surprised if other surgeries could do something like that, too. I mean I assume most trans-related surgeries are a positive escape from dysphoria.

  • Goadstool [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    He literally can’t admit when he is wrong, even about the simplest shit.

    Can’t stand this attitude. Would cut him out for this alone. I’ve cut people out with this mindset before and I don’t even slightly regret it.

  • TupamarosShakur [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    I’ve pretty much dumped a long time friend during Covid, cause they went full on fash pretty much. It hasn’t been an explicit thing, the dumping, we just no longer talk and I don’t really consider him a friend anymore. A shame too, I mean he never had perfect politics, I mean tbh he was probably always a bit center right, but he was a good guy to hang around. But at one point people change and it’s just not fun to talk with them anymore.

    I have other friends who, I wouldn’t say I’ve “dumped,” we still talk occasionally and I see them now and again, but the relationship has undoubtably changed. They got big fancy office jobs whereas I worked a series of absolute shit, no money jobs interspersed with periods of unemployment. The divide was exacerbated when I was on the front lines of Covid and these guys were complaining about work from home. We just no longer see eye to eye and the relationship is hard. It’s sad since at one point a long time ago we were inseparable. But time keeps moving and we all change, you just need to accept that.

    • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      with my friend we agree politically like 90%, but its diverged since he has gone 100% anti authoritarian whereas im saying what we want to happen to the wealthy is definitely authoritarianism. but that would require him admitting he was wrong in some way.

        • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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          pretty much. One time he was trying to get at me for not reading enough of Marx and shit, and then he admitted he hasn’t actually read any of the full works. As far i can tell he mostly just reads fantasy novels. And im certain he hasn’t really read any anarchist theory either, despite being so proud of his history degree. His viewpoint is almost entirely “anti-authoritarian” without any further analysis of why its absurd for a “revolutionary” to be a hardline anti-authoritarian. He thinks we can win the revolution and end up in utopia immediately. He doesnt even call himself an anrchist though, all i ever hear is anti-authoritarian, because he also thinks “real” communism/socialism hasn’t ever existed so therefore it’s not worth trying to achieve. He has no support for AES. He thinks China is killing all the Uighurs. He thinks the Ukraine war is good because Putin is bad.

          im pretty sure he doesnt want to claim to be an anarchist/socialist/communist because then that would make him part of a group of people that thinks similarly, and he constantly has to be the most unique snowflake in the room.

              • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                I had a one on one struggle session once with a former roommate where I gave a “lifeboat with limited supplies” scenario, not even one of the contrived ones, just a way of stress-testing his “don’t tell me what to doooooooooooooooo” ideology. It went something like this:

                wall-talk “There are several other passengers on the lifeboat, including a toddler and a critically injured person who is immobilized. I will assume that you would at least agree that rationing is necessary to…”

                smuglord “You’re putting words in my mouth. You (scoffing sound) CAN’T tell people what to do. And on that lifeboat, there’s no one holding a gun to force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do.”

                wall-talk “So without a threat of violence, you wouldn’t even consider the needs of the toddler or the injured person? You’d just let them…”

                smuglord “They (scoff sound, tongue click) aren’t my responsibility. It’s tragic, but… you can’t tell me what to do.”

                wall-talk “So you eat all you want and drink all you want and hoard supplies because you can, and at least two people on that lifeboat die that didn’t have to, and maybe more if the other survivors decide they have had enough of you…”

                smuglord “That’s a threat of violence. That’s… (scoff sound) on them, not me.”

  • Yep. Dude prided himself on being an asshole since highschool. It was funny back then, but the kept it up, became more of a jerk and mocking me constantly, married an ex of mine and turns out he beat her and broke her down emotionally like he always did to everyone else. Went down the AnCap/sovereign citizens pipeline and started posting about how terrible teachers are - my partner is a teacher. No regrets about ghosting him, I don’t even think about him any more and my life is a lot better. We live too short of lives to hang around with people who treat you like shit.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      It was funny back then, but the kept it up, became more of a jerk and mocking me constantly, married an ex of mine and turns out he beat her and broke her down emotionally like he always did to everyone else.

      The Justin Roiland (and his key fanbase) story arc, right there.

    • SuperNovaCouchGuy2 [any]@hexbear.net
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      Dude prided himself on being an asshole since highschool. It was funny back then, but the kept it up, became more of a jerk and mocking me constantly, married an ex of mine and turns out he beat her and broke her down emotionally like he always did to everyone else.

      I hope he gets blown up by a creeper when mining diamonds in Minecraft so he falls into lava and loses all his diamond armor (too much of a noob for netherite).

      • I just hope he becomes a better person. After his second divorce he married some chud woman that he quickly got pregnant and they moved to the middle of nowhere. We have a mutual friend from high school who also went off a different deep end (religious), but is a lovely person - him and his wife helped the asshole guy’s second wife escape the violence, so they learned a lot of details they don’t want to repeat. But one time he said to me “I think he’s moving out into the sticks so no one can hear his wife scream”…

        • SuperNovaCouchGuy2 [any]@hexbear.net
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          “I think he’s moving out into the sticks so no one can hear his wife scream”

          Horror movie material. This means to me that he is truly a dangerous person and I pray that he never meets you guys again, unless you’re all armed and ready to deal with him.

          • Def armed up, and he’s blocked by us on social media. Last time he reached out was over 3 years ago so I think we’re in the clear. Thing is, personality wise he’s almost a clone of my brother, whom we know is much more of a danger to us (christo-fascist and active III%er). We don’t see him unless he shows at holidays, and we refuse to be alone with him. Shits fucked, but I have no regrets keeping these kinds of people out of our lives.

  • keepcarrot [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    Honestly sounds like a couple of people I’ve friend dumped, with a little variation.

    Therapy, if it is doing anything, might take years to show any results. You don’t need to put up with that in the interim. If you want, you could give him some notes to take to his therapist, but that may not go down well at all.

    Edit: this thread was cathartic. You should talk to your other mutual friends about this though

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    have you ever dumped a long time friend?

    Yes. I recently cut ties with someone I had considered a close friend for decades because I could no longer make excuses for his immature, even violent outbursts. He was dragging down my friend group and making my wife miserable with his tantrums and his deliberate attempts to drag everyone else down around him.

    He was also exceptionally reddit logo brained while under false pretenses of being a leftist, with big time “DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” treat defender tendencies, including repeated apologia for cartoon depictions of kiddie creeping. libertarian-alert

    • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      Immature and loud outbursts are definitely what is happening here. Like he just can’t shut off his ranting, he will have to go on some long rant about some injustice and its like, we just wanna have a friendly dinner goddamn. But he also still fights with his parents all the time too, much like he did when he was 16. He has always had a “don’t tell me what to dooooooo” thing going. Him still bringing up the fight he had with my gf is an issue too, he just can’t let shit go or shut up about it, he always has to claim how “correct” he always is.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        long rant about some injustice

        "I want mlk-yes "

        “We have rants about injustice at home.”

        The rant about injustice at home:

        “don’t tell me what to dooooooo”

          • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            I know you said that that person was not a jordan-eboy-peterson fan, but I think it’s still relevant that Dr. Professor Lobster MD PhD Esquire raked in so much money from people that screamed “DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DOOOOOO” to their moms when told to clean their rooms, but then heard it from a patriarchal grifter and gasped at the profound wisdom.

  • hollowmines [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    I dumped a friend of ~8yrs who got weird and standoffish with me after I got a gf (which only lasted a few months!). It’s a real thing that happens.