Watched my high school friend group erode before my eyes over the last month or two. I've kept in contact with my close friends over the past few years, and we'd occasionally have discord calls and everything, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I'd say of the group of 6 I was the most liberal/progressive, but the rest of my friends, barring another, were pretty politically neutral. There would be times where I would say something ridiculous, and my friends would call me out, and we'd have an actual discussion about things. But now one other friends essentially left, and a new guy replaced him.
It appears to have started with an idiot hanging out with my friends, who entered the group chat and starts posting conspiracy theories. When Tucker Carlson was a mouthpiece for Putin, he was discussing and acting as though Tucker was some genius level reporter for succumbing to a dictator. There has been some pushback, but IMO it's not enough, and I have zero clue what my friends see in this person. Other common traits are complaining about migrants, and posting very sensationalized news articles about a variety of topics that make me go "aaaueeeh". Because a good chunk of my friends are actual children of immigrants, and I don't know this guys background, it's not something that in this specific case that I think is intended from a source of maliciousness, just someone being an idiotic reactionary sponge.
Now, I want to be clear that despite my political beliefs, I don't like calling people out privately, or assuming/making judgmental beliefs solely for politics. But it goes far beyond that. If you want evidence he's an idiot, I recommended
Godzilla Minus One to my friend, when it came out. They thankfully saw it, but this guy was ragging on Minus One, saying it was mid and stupid. A lot of weird remarks about the film that sort of indicate to me that someone is really lacking any actual brain power. In the group chat it felt like my friends were sort of going along with this bozo, but when we talked about it separately and privately, I got the feeling that they enjoyed it more.
Edit: when someone asked if anyone was watching the Oscar’s, I said Godzilla won the VFX. The idiot responded something about the red pins that Billie Ellish wore being some symbol for the Illuminati?
If you think I'm being really judgmental for the third paragraph, maybe cringey even, so be it. I'm also not saying if you don't like Minus One you're an idiot. However, the Godzilla Minus One example is a clear moment of where its easy to suddenly recognize that someone is a total dolt and not interested in at all in engaging with them. Friends of mine have said raunchy/controversial stuff before, but we always talk about it because at the end of the day I respect them and have known them for a long time. But with this person?
Why bother? Why bother arguing with an idiot I don't know?
The big ruination moment is I'm accepting that a friend group has fallen apart, and that people have changed. Is this a big deal? Probably not. But I felt the need to write it out here, for my own sake, as part of that acceptance. It's been something I've been thinking about months and I think this is forcing me to accept it and my emotions surrounding everything.
I am considering privately messaging some of my friends and asking them about this. I think a few of them might actually feel the same way. To an extent I am worried about this affecting our relationship...but then I go back to the last paragraph and recognize: eh? So be it. Friendships begin, end, erode and renew.
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Kiryu2012 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2024 9:13 pm
Getting the news that my mother's been hospitalized from a brain bleed was a real gut punch today.
I’m sorry for this, and I hope she’s okay/recovers.