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NTGYK

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
3,470
And trying not to feel bad about it is tough. Most of my friends are great people, but one of my oldest friends has just... Never grown up. He's still the same socially awkward weirdo he was when we first met 15 years ago. It's not that he doesn't have a job or girlfriend, he does, but he's constantly in bad abusive relationships due to his terror of being alone and he only ever wants to hang out when it serves him or saves him from being lonely. He'll drag us out to bars to "be social" but all he does is drink and stare at women and refuses to go up and try to talk to anyone. He has weird attitudes towards women and people of color in general, not to the point where he's out and out offensive, but where it makes people leer at him a bit.

The thing is, it isn't like he's some monster or sociopath, but have you ever felt like where one friend is just trying to drag you down? Friends are supposed to lift you up, and I've tried for years to lift him, but he prefers to stay stuck in the mud. Am I a bad person for giving up on him?
 

Deleted member 35011

User requested account closure
Banned
Dec 1, 2017
2,185
No, you're not a bad person. You have to put your own mental health ahead of your friends' sometimes. It's nice to be a good friend and stick by them, but sometimes it's just more than you can handle. You're a friend, not a therapist. Don't be too harsh on yourself, you tried to help him and it didn't work. You can focus on yourself now.
 

shaneo632

Weekend Planner
Member
Oct 29, 2017
29,008
Wrexham, Wales
I did it about 5 years ago. He clearly had issues and I sometimes wonder if I should've helped him more, but he started lying about me to my partner which was basically crossing the line. I wish him the best but I haven't got time for that. He's since swung from being politically left to politically right so I doubt we'd have much in common if we saw each other again.

It's sad but it happens. Not every friendship is for life and that's OK. No point keeping people in your life for misplaced sentimental reasons.

EDIT: In your case it's probably easiest to just quietly phase him out if possible.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,411
I think your title is a bit over the top with what your friend is actually like. He just sounds really socially awkward and it doesn't sound like he is trying to bring you down purposefully. If he is making you unhappy to be around him, either slowly phase him out of your life without hurting him.
 
Dec 2, 2017
3,435
No, you're not a bad person at all. You do not have a responsibility for another adult's mental state, and trying to endlessly invest in something emotionally that's draining you is just going to harm you in the end if that person is not invested in changing themselves. You only have so much emotional resource yourself, and somebody who's always making withdrawals on that reserve is going to end up taking you down with them.

If you've tried for years, you've done your duty as a friend. If he's got a girlfriend and a job it's not like you're leaving him with no support system.
 
OP
OP
NTGYK

NTGYK

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
3,470
I think your title is a bit over the top with what your friend is actually like. He just sounds really socially awkward and it doesn't sound like he is trying to bring you down purposefully. If he is making you unhappy to be around him, either slowly phase him out of your life without hurting him.

'Toxic' is the word that most people in our friend circle use to describe him. Not toxic as in horrible, but like a banal toxicity.
 

DonShula

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,841
Don't spend life trying to accommodate people who refuse to change for the better. You will expend too much energy on something that you ultimately can not control and are not responsible for.
 

JackSwift

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,267
Try to help him just a bit more, just enough to know you've given it your all to better the situation, then if it doesn't get any better, it's time to give up.
 

Tesseract

Banned
Nov 11, 2017
2,646
not all your friends are gonna be winners. keep the people you love, phase out the ones you don't.

alternatively, try to help him out. some people need a little help. some people need a lot.
 

TickleMeElbow

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,668
I don't understand how any of his behavior is "dragging you down".

Sounds like you just don't enjoy his company anymore because you see him as somewhat of a loser.

I personally don't care if a friend is in a good or bad spot. I only cut friends off if they're being assholes to me or others.
 

TaterTots

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,966
Nah. Fuck em. If you've been trying for years to help him and change things and he chooses to be a masochist and I'm assuming racist? Then leave him be.
 

SugarNoodles

Member
Nov 3, 2017
8,625
Portland, OR
I think your title is a bit over the top with what your friend is actually like. He just sounds really socially awkward and it doesn't sound like he is trying to bring you down purposefully. If he is making you unhappy to be around him, either slowly phase him out of your life without hurting him.
Yeah, not a bad person, just sexist, racist, creepy, and immature.

Come on. Stop making excuses for awful guys.
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
I did,
and it worked out for the better.

I work in a diverse workplace and that environment made it easy for me to cut loose my old college years friend who is an Alt-Right Christian Nationalist.

the only reason why I was friends with him was because he was friends with one my other friend. My other friend then started adopting ther other's bad ideas and qualities, brainwashing.

So I had to cut both loose at the same time.

I feel sorry for the one friend who got brainwashed by the alt-right nutter. But I had to save myself. I'm a normal average Liberal who lives in a cosmopolitan city and in a diverse workplace; it was really easy for my to identify that my former Alt-Right friends' views were fucked up and wrong.

Was friends with them since 1994. but the nutter got worse in last 5 years and has gone full validated nutter after Trump won.

We are not even American to boot, we are Canadians LOL
 

SugarNoodles

Member
Nov 3, 2017
8,625
Portland, OR
That is uhhhh, quite the leap considering his OP said nothing of the sort. Just that he is weird and socially awkward.

Like, I know this is your schtick, but you are REALLY misrepresenting what the OP was saying.
Selfish, constantly in abusive relationships, goes to bars and just drinks and stares at women, and has "weird" attitudes toward women and people of color.

Like I don't think it can be any clearer.
 
OP
OP
NTGYK

NTGYK

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
3,470
I don't understand how any of his behavior is "dragging you down".

Sounds like you just don't enjoy his company anymore because you see him as somewhat of a loser.

I personally don't care if a friend is in a good or bad spot. I only cut friends off if they're being assholes to me or others.
Well, what put it over the top was he called me retarded for doing some stuff that a lot of my other friends supported regarding my girlfriend. It pissed me off since he is questioning me being exclusive with her when the second he found a woman willing to date him after his last girl dumped him, he professed to love her on their second date (on Valentine's day) and she treats him like shit all the time.

The hypocrisy really ticked me off. I stopped talking to him for a while, then he asked me and another friend to come to his girlfriend's birthday party because she wanted him there but didn't wanna spend time with him and wanted to hang with her girlfriends, so he needed his most normal friends so he wouldn't be lonely at the party
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,411
Selfish, constantly in abusive relationships, goes to bars and just drinks and stares at women, and has "weird" attitudes toward women and people of color.

Like I don't think it can be any clearer.


This is a whole lot of assumptions for absolutely no reason, as the OP didn't give a lot of context to a lot of those descriptions, most of which can be attributed to the guy straight up just being weird and socially awkward and having no idea how to act in certain situations.
 

skeezx

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,170
i broke off decades old friendships but most of that was blatant "point of no return" stuff like with hardcore drug abuse and such. so i dunno, going by what's in the OP seems kind of benign stuff on your friend's part, but maybe it just comes off that way

either way people change, circumstances change, and it gets to the point where you're more committed to the concept of friendship rather than friendship itself. imo life is too short to feel too bad about going your own way, just make sure it's done in a relatively mutual and decent way
 

Beartruck

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,939
6 months from now you'll wish you did it sooner. Your time is too valuable to waste on dipshits.
 

SugarNoodles

Member
Nov 3, 2017
8,625
Portland, OR
This is a whole lot of assumptions for absolutely no reason, as the OP didn't give a lot of context to a lot of those descriptions, most of which can be attributed to the guy straight up just being weird and socially awkward and having no idea how to act in certain situations.
Yes, he specifically stated that the dude has weird attitudes towards women and people of color as a way of characterizing his "general" social awkwardness.

You can't be serious right now.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,293
Yeah had an alcoholic friend where me trying to help him out only resulted in pushing him further away. Had to call it quits to not make things even worse between us.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,411
Yes, he specifically stated that the dude has weird attitudes towards women and people of color as a way of characterizing his "general" social awkwardness.

You can't be serious right now.

You've never met someone that is weird as shit around members of the opposite sex or people of color? They are everywhere. They don't necessarily mean anything by it, they just are awkward as shit.

You are really overreacting and basing all your posts off from very, VERY little information.
 

Deleted member 5549

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,198

TickleMeElbow

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,668
Well, what put it over the top was he called me retarded for doing some stuff that a lot of my other friends supported regarding my girlfriend. It pissed me off since he is questioning me being exclusive with her when the second he found a woman willing to date him after his last girl dumped him, he professed to love her on their second date (on Valentine's day) and she treats him like shit all the time.

The hypocrisy really ticked me off. I stopped talking to him for a while, then he asked me and another friend to come to his girlfriend's birthday party because she wanted him there but didn't wanna spend time with him and wanted to hang with her girlfriends, so he needed his most normal friends so he wouldn't be lonely at the party

Oh, lol.

Yeah that sounds pretty childish.

Idk man it's really hard for randos on the internet to get a solid idea of what you and your friend's relationship is like. I guess you just have to weigh the positives and the negatives. If he's always negative and you don't enjoy his company then just stop talking to him.

I used to have a friend (well, more of a close friend of a few in my friend group) who was always negative. My other friends always chilled with him, so I'd end up chilling with him quite a bit as well. Dude had some kind of complaint about everything, and his whole life pretty much consisted of going to work, then coming home and watching Netflix. However, he was kinda funny when he wanted to be, and every once in awhile he'd randomly do something really nice for me, like give me a bunch of weed lol. His negativity was annoying, but it didn't really impact my life at all, so I continued to hang out with him. Then he moved and we stopped talking.

Anyways, if every time your friend hits you up and you don't want to see him, it's best to just cut him off.
 
OP
OP
NTGYK

NTGYK

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
3,470
So, cause there's a bit of debate here, I'm gonna run down a list his greatest hits/highlights, then you guys can tell me if this constitutes toxicity:

- Dated a girl for three years despite not loving her and telling her to her face that he doesn't love her, and him saying that he doesn't like Asians despite her being Asian, again to her face. Now, I didn't like this GF much, but come on man, you can't just drag shit like that out for three years! He kept dating her because he'd rather be with someone than alone, and that girl was just as co-dependent as him and she'd rather stay with a guy who didn't love her than be alone.

- His Asian GF dumped him for one of his best friends. He's still friends with that guy because he doesn't have many other friends, and I was actually getting angry on his behalf cause it was all kinds of weird.

- He lives with his parents (which is not a knock, I live with my parents too), but his parents want him outta the house, or to at least get rid of all his invasive tropical plants cause he's an amateur botanist. He said he'd rather move out than get rid of half his plants which is what they wanted. Things are still in the air, he has clearly not moved out.

- The girl he's dating now has anger issues, told him that he clearly likes her more than she likes him, and doesn't get why he loves her so much. She seems to treat him like dogshit and he just takes it. He complains about that all the time, but he refuses to take my advice about dumping her and being okay with being alone for a while because "He loves her and can't go on without her"

- after the last girl dumped him, he begged to come to the gym with me cause he wanted to start watching his diet and getting his life together. As soon as he met the current GF, he quit going to the gym and left me solo again, which frustrated me cause I told him that if he wants to come with me, he's gotta make a commitment and stick to it. I specifically stated that he needs to stick to it even if he meets another girl, cause you can't just let your partner run your whole life, you have to balance all your priorities.

- He's super passive-aggressive. His GF said that he can't keep his plants when they move in, so rather than have an adult conversation, he went to the store, bought three plants and sent her a pic of them with a winking emoji.

- he wants to date a hot tight blonde with double D's and yoga flexibliity but never puts himself out there. He's never asked out a girl in his life. When he was single, he was on Tinder and POF everyday swiping and would get depressed every goddamn day he didn't have a match. He matched with a few girls but refused to message them cause they were either too fat or not to whatever standard he had cooked up in his head. It's weird, cause his current GF is four years older than him and is way heavier, so I'm wondering if the fucking three months he was single dug into his psyche so much he just hitched up with her as fast as he could.

- He has a serious porn and masturbation addiction. Like, he has a kung fu grip but he refuses to get sexual therapy or some kind of medical help for it. He complains about his sexual performance all the time (it takes him well over two hours to cum with a woman) but refuses to get help.

- He always wants to go to a bar or club, but refuses to dance, talk to other people, flirt, anything. We sit there in a booth and waste a Saturday night drinking instead of doing something fun.

- He never takes responsiblitiy or attempts to change anything in his life, and prefers to just complain.
 

CharMomone

Member
Oct 27, 2017
385
Give them some 'real talk' in an attempt to try to get them to self reflect on their behavior, and if that doesn't work then just start phasing them out of your life.

If they value your friendship enough to try to change then they are worth keeping around even if they struggle with it.
 

Burrman

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,633
I sorta ghosted a really close friend like that about 10 years ago. It still bugs the shit out of me. It was a straight dick move I pulled and always regret it. He was a good friend but always super negative and sorta always put me on a downer. Not towards me specifically, but in general. Funny thing is he was one of my only friends that was hardcore into gaming. I honestly feel gaming is the most negative and toxic communities of all.
I never what I'm gonna say to him when I eventually run into him. Sorry is all I could say and it wouldn't be good enough.

He wasn't racist and shut tho, and was overall a good person, which makes it worse
 

TickleMeElbow

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,668
So, cause there's a bit of debate here, I'm gonna run down a list his greatest hits/highlights, then you guys can tell me if this constitutes toxicity:

- Dated a girl for three years despite not loving her and telling her to her face that he doesn't love her, and him saying that he doesn't like Asians despite her being Asian, again to her face. Now, I didn't like this GF much, but come on man, you can't just drag shit like that out for three years! He kept dating her because he'd rather be with someone than alone, and that girl was just as co-dependent as him and she'd rather stay with a guy who didn't love her than be alone.

- His Asian GF dumped him for one of his best friends. He's still friends with that guy because he doesn't have many other friends, and I was actually getting angry on his behalf cause it was all kinds of weird.

- He lives with his parents (which is not a knock, I live with my parents too), but his parents want him outta the house, or to at least get rid of all his invasive tropical plants cause he's an amateur botanist. He said he'd rather move out than get rid of half his plants which is what they wanted. Things are still in the air, he has clearly not moved out.

- The girl he's dating now has anger issues, told him that he clearly likes her more than she likes him, and doesn't get why he loves her so much. She seems to treat him like dogshit and he just takes it. He complains about that all the time, but he refuses to take my advice about dumping her and being okay with being alone for a while because "He loves her and can't go on without her"

- after the last girl dumped him, he begged to come to the gym with me cause he wanted to start watching his diet and getting his life together. As soon as he met the current GF, he quit going to the gym and left me solo again, which frustrated me cause I told him that if he wants to come with me, he's gotta make a commitment and stick to it. I specifically stated that he needs to stick to it even if he meets another girl, cause you can't just let your partner run your whole life, you have to balance all your priorities.

- He's super passive-aggressive. His GF said that he can't keep his plants when they move in, so rather than have an adult conversation, he went to the store, bought three plants and sent her a pic of them with a winking emoji.

- he wants to date a hot tight blonde with double D's and yoga flexibliity but never puts himself out there. He's never asked out a girl in his life. When he was single, he was on Tinder and POF everyday swiping and would get depressed every goddamn day he didn't have a match. He matched with a few girls but refused to message them cause they were either too fat or not to whatever standard he had cooked up in his head. It's weird, cause his current GF is four years older than him and is way heavier, so I'm wondering if the fucking three months he was single dug into his psyche so much he just hitched up with her as fast as he could.

- He has a serious porn and masturbation addiction. Like, he has a kung fu grip but he refuses to get sexual therapy or some kind of medical help for it. He complains about his sexual performance all the time (it takes him well over two hours to cum with a woman) but refuses to get help.

- He always wants to go to a bar or club, but refuses to dance, talk to other people, flirt, anything. We sit there in a booth and waste a Saturday night drinking instead of doing something fun.

- He never takes responsiblitiy or attempts to change anything in his life, and prefers to just complain.

Yeah...dude sounds like a mess lol.

Stop hanging out with the dude.
 

Violence Jack

Drive-in Mutant
Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,771
I'll just say that all of the success and goals I had for myself came to fruition once I cut the two most toxic friends I had out of my life. They were the main source of my stress and made me think that I would never amount to anything beyond what I already was. I wouldn't feel too bad OP. Your friend sounds a lot worse than the ones I let go.
 

Quixzlizx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,591
If you don't enjoy his company anymore, you don't need to come up with an airtight case to stop spending time with him.

...or do you?

 
Oct 27, 2017
3,837
best thing you can do is just stop responding to their messages and go no contact
they will slowly drift out of you life.
"friends" from highschool/college did that to me, and i did it the more toxic ppl in my life.
you can confront people and show them the problem, but that almost never ends right.
 

BumbaT BrowN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
589
I have friends that woukd become this friend of yours if I and the rest of the boys did not keep them in check all the time. These guys need one thing, more friends that keep reminding them about the change they need to become. We never give up on these guys because we have known them for a long time and we still hope one day they will find peace, with the help of our support. Loneliness is such a huge problem its what makes people think up of weird shit when they have nobody else challenging these thoughts.

I do admit that you have yo have a strong personality yourself and can laugh off most things to be able to hang out with them.
 

Chrome Hyena

Member
Oct 30, 2017
8,769
nah sometimes people just grow apart. It happens to everyone. I had a friend who had a REALLY dark side I had no idea of, and i'd known him for 5 years. It wasn't until his ex GF told my GF about how she found a "hidden online account of his where he talked about a"fantasy" of his, wanting to take a "rape tour" to a 3rd world country. He mentioned Mexico (which is clearly not one) and a few middle eastern and Eastern Europe countries. Of course my GF told me, I confronted him and he didn't deny it, his excuse was "its just a online thing, nothing real". Well it was enough for me to not be his friend anymore and tel him that kinda shit will get him fucked up or murdered if he really tried it in some other country.

So yes, definitely cut people out of your life who are toxic, negative and just bring you down. Life is too short to waste it on that kinda thing.
 

SABO.

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,872
You get used to it after the first few.

There will be heaps of people you'll have to drop over the course of your life.