There comes a time in our lives when we have to cut people out because of their toxic, negative, or destructive behavior. And there's no shame in doing it - tolerance and acceptance can only go so far, and there is always a last straw.
The785 asked: What was the incident that made you cut somebody close out of your life?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
15. Some people desperately need to control others.
She said I was becoming arrogant.
All my life I was a very submissive person, full of guilt for any perceived slight I might have made against someone, and generally apologetic for being the huge waste of space I thought I was. This girl I was friends with for 10+ years tended to prey upon that. I was her walking doormat, and would do anything she wanted.
When I met my husband, he helped bring me out of that mentality. Helped me become more assertive, and to stop letting people walk all over me and take advantage of my submissive nature.
This friend saw that and tried to stop it. She said I was changing, but not for the better. That I was becoming arrogant and selfish and a bad friend. At the time I was devastated, but my husband said, "She can't control you anymore, and that scares her."
He was right.
Going 5 years since I cut her (and some of our mutual friends) from my life, and I've never been in a better place mentally.
The same thing happened to me - she didn't like that I didn't need her any more. :(
14. Just mean.
I had a roommate who's BF broke up with her. I went and picked up her stuff from his house and took her out to eat. On the way home she's going on about how he could walk out of the house and get hit by a bus and how heartbroken she would be. I pointed out there wasn't a bus stop next to his house trying to lighten up the mood (they only dated about 3 months or something) so she turns to me and says "I hope your husband dies in Iraq so you know my pain." I told her that was going too far and she kept at it. I pointed out we had been together years not months and he was her friend to but she didn't care and never said sorry, she was drunk so I thought that was why she was being so mean but the next day when she was sober she stood by what she said. I kicked her out and never talked to her again.
Woooow. F*ck that.
Good on you for giving her the drunk pass. I can't believe she doubled down.
13. Grooming.
They started engaging in behavior around my kids which reminded me a little bit too strongly of the way I was treated by a child molester when I was little. And they tried to get my kids to ignore rules that I had set, and replace them with their own rules.
Wise choice. Good for you for noticing
12. Trashy, goodbye.
I used to go to the same pub every week on the regular with the same group of peeps, was an awesome time for a while.
One of the girls got a new, slightly weird boyfriend, and kinda went downhill as a human. This culminated in one particular night, which would be our last time going as a result.
On this night, she started being a huge b!tch to the server because the wings were taking too long. This is wing night, there are like 150 people here for cheap wings, and the server obviously has nothing to do with how long food takes to come out.
So her and her boyfriend literally trash the table we were sitting at, spraying condiments all over, wetting napkins with sauce and sticking them everywhere, and everybody else literally gets up and moves or leaves.
She was laughing like a psycho, her and her boyfriend were clearly getting off on one-upping each others sh*ttiness, and I decided I did not need that type of lunatic in my life.
11. Enabling doesn't help anyone.
When my sister text my mom with a message that read: "You're a horsesh*t c*nt of a mother. I can't wait until you die. It'll be the greatest day of my life!"
All because my mom wouldn't take $30,000 out of her retirement to bail out my sister's house that was to be foreclosed on because she's a lazy f*ck who didn't want to work.
The sad thing is that my mom was going to do it, too. My dad & I convinced her that she's going to piss away the $30,000 to save the house and then in a few more months, right back in the same situation. It was a lost cause.
She's even worse than meets the eye for those of you who want to understand a bit more about foreclosures.
It's not just the fact that she's going through foreclosure due to delinquency, but it's also that she let something entirely preventable from happening by doing nothing.
Contrary to popular beliefs, banks don't like foreclosures. In fact, banks will actively work with you to avoid foreclosures provided you give them 100% effort.
Foreclosures suck butts. The process needs to be done to the tee, the home will probably fall into disrepair, and buying a foreclosure is an entirely different beast than a traditional transaction, short sale, etc. Buying foreclosures sucks major butt, and banks know this, so they try to avoid holding onto these foreclosures.
Basically, your sister played the victim card instead of arranging something with her bank. She could have done a short sale at the very least (and would owe a lot in taxes but w/e) but instead, she wanted a hand out.
Wow. I bet she's the type to trash an apartment when she gets an eviction letter.
10. Someone has issues...
I had a friend who kept insisting I had a mental illness and wouldn't stop even if I told her. She began telling my friends and even asking if they thought the same thing. Because of this incident and her toxic personality I decided to tell her to f*ck off which was definitely for the better.
This exact thing happened to me. She had a lot of mental issues and she tried to mirror them in me.
She has clinical anxiety and subclinical depression and is medicated for it. she said she saw traces in me and that i had to go to the psychiatrist.
I have some issues but therapy once a month is working just fine.
9. Self-destructive behavior is contagious.
For me it wasn't a single incident, but the fact that she was always incredibly negative and refused to get counseling for the issues that she was going through. Every single time we hung out she Would spend two hours complaining about the same for things over and over. One of them being that people never stuck around in her life… At first I felt sympathy for her, then tried to suggest counseling to help talk through her issues, then I got frustrated, and eventually I slowly let the relationship die out. I don't want that kind of toxicity in my life.
she sounds like my ex...
She pushed everyone who cared about her in her life away through her actions and then and treats whoever she gets romantic with as the piece of the puzzle that completes her and can understand her and the pain of losing every around her in her life until she stops being infatuated and inevitable pushes them away too while finding a way to spin the story in her head as them abandoning her.
8. Men who can't keep it in their pants...
The second time I've heard that he was flirting with my girlfriend, a different girl than the first time.
A friend doesn't do that, so he was demoted quite instantly.
Same. I'm a female though. My best friend of 7 years started sexting my new boyfriend she knew I was really into behind my back. She then lied about still talking to him multiple times to my face. Even laughed about it to my face. Turns out like 2 days after I find all this out (this past Valentine's Day), she went on a date with him and lied about it to me, twice. I don't know why she thought I would still be her friend with her blatantly lying like that. I saw them together on my birthday last month and as far as I know they are still together. Friends don't do that sh*t.
7. No excuse.
My older brother and his wife #4 turning my parents home into a crack house while mom and dad were still there. Haven't seen or spoken to him in over ten years.
Good on you for just walking out of that, condolences to your family.
6. Pets' lives are worth saving.
My uncle basically forced my grandma to adopt a cat they found. He say he would pay for all the cat's expenses (vet, food, litter, etc) since my grandma does not work and can't really afford the expenses of owning a pet. After 2 or 3 years of my grandma living with the cat, he got a blatter infection and had to be rushed to the vet since he had not peed in a couple of days (grandma did not notice this). My mom had to drive them (cuz my grandma is not a confident driver) and neither of them speaks English very well. Because of this my uncle was the one who was talking with the vet over the cat's treatments and it boiled down to either putting the cat down or do an expensive medical procedure.
My uncle instead of telling my grandma what the situation was and that the cat needed surgery, he simply told her that they needed to put the cat down and to let me know so I could go say goodbye to him. Once I arrive to the vet and see my mom and grandma crying cuz they are saying their last goodbyes, I talk to the nurse wondering if there is anything we can do whatsoever to save his life, she looks at me confused and tells me that we could do an operation on him that had good chances of being successful. I tell my mom and grandma this and they are confused because my uncle told them the cat could not be saved. I ended up paying for the surgery and Valentino (cat's name) is still wagging his tail to this day. That was the day I stopped talking to my uncle (he has a very well paying job, no kids nor family, money is not an issue to him, yet he still decided to just put him down regardless of all the pain my grandma was going to feel).
5. Some people are never satisfied.
Made a friend in 8th grade, stayed friends through highschool and college. She was a bridesmaid at my wedding, planned my bachelorette party since my MOH wasn't sure what to do. She got engaged 3 years after I was married. At this point we'd been friends close to 15 years.
Her mother had died when she was young, MIL was unwilling to help plan, and no idea what to do so she asked for my help in planning the wedding as it hadn't been too long since my own, then went total bridezilla on me. There were lots of issues with the planning but the main issue had to do with the bridesmaid dresses.
We went to a bridal show one Saturday and she decided she wants all the bridesmaids to match. The problem was she had bridesmaids of every shape and size, from 0 to 5x and she kept trying to choose only dresses that the skinny girls felt comfortable in. Things that were strapless and would not allow the larger girls to wear a bra. More than one came up to me and asked me to see if I could help her choose something so that everyone would be comfortable.
The next weekend I was supposed to go to a concert that was 4 hours away from home. The plan was for my now-ex and I to go up Saturday morning, sight see from noon to 8, see the concert and then drive home. Since everyone was having problems with the dress I agreed to leave the house at 2 instead, not do the sight seeing and spend the morning with her to figure out the dresses.
The night before the concert she sent me a message on Myspace and said that I was a liar for making plans with her when I was going to be out of town. She proceeded to call me a c*nt for taking over her wedding, said that my mom was a whore, my sister was going to end up being raped if she didn't learn how to say no and that my dad needed to stop being such and abusive a*shat. I cut her out of my life right then, had a great time sight seeing and at the concert.
TLDR: Bridezilla asked for my help then insulted me and my family when I gave it.
4. TV shows understand us better than ourselves.
When I was 12-15 I went through a very bad depression that almost killed me. I went through life like a zombie, agreeing to everything my friends said and having no personality.
This one friend left for an exchange year. When he came back, we were having trouble reconnecting as both of us had changed quite a bit (including me getting through my depression). We met one day to talk about everything that was going on and he said "I don't know who you are now. Do you even know who you are now?" He then told me he liked my older self better, using those exact words. To me, that meant that he liked me better when I was sad and considering taking my life, because I just followed whatever he said in fear of being left alone. It came as such a shock and hurt so much that when I got home that day, I asked my mom if she liked me better before as well.
He also tweeted about me, calling me a toxic person, and treated the whole issue as him being sassy and moving on from me, who had been his friend since we were 4.
Also, when I was going through this depression, I trusted him and told him about the problems going on in my house, to which he replied with "oh my god, this is so similar to a TV show I'm watching called Shameless, maybe it will help to watch it." That's all he said about my father being an alcoholic, ex cocaine addict, abusive father figure.
I watched the first episode of Shameless and it hit too close to home - I hope you're doing better, friend, and if you're not - it gets better, I promise.
I'm doing a lot better now. I still have problems at home, but generally things are going well. Thanks for taking your time to write some kind words. And I can't bring myself to watch the show because I don't think it would help much, so I don't really know what it's about. However, I hope you can find a solution or get over whatever is in that show that hits close to home.
We're all in this together, no man is an island. Yeah the first part of the episode is the kids scrounging together breakfast and putting money together to keep the electricity on - dad is nowhere to be seen. Hits too close to home. But i'm doing better, always on the up and up :) Thank you
3. Good riddance.
- Mother. She told my sister, after she had been raped and beaten into a miscarriage, "that's what you get for being such a little f---ing whore." Sister died some years later due to long term drug and alcohol abuse.
- Step-Father. Did not intervene when my mother intentionally and maliciously tortured my dad and his family with the planning of their daughter's funeral and gravesite.
Step-father had two step-daughters in a previous marriage and no children of his own while my mother had my sister and me. Now they don't see or hear from any of their children or grand children.
2. People who harm animals are the worst. Full stop.
He picked up his 8 month old dog and slammed it to the ground because it pissed in the house. I called the humane society, had the dog taken from him and never spoke to him again.
Thanks for doing that. I respect you for it.
1. Success is a state of mind.
Close-ish.
I hosted a party a while back, Inviting close friends and some slightly more extended friends. Food, drinks, games.
I was talking about work with a close friend. We both work in technology.
Extended friend sees us talking careers, etc. He walks up and asks me if I think he's successful. The guy has been working at a gas station for the last 3 or 4 years or so.
I had had a couple of drinks already, but I could recognize emotional blackmail a mile away. I told him that I think he's successful is if he thinks he is. He though my answer was a cop-out, so he kept trying to bait me into saying that I don't think he's successful. Close friend called him out, and the guy left me alone for the night.
It makes me pretty mad for sure, I haven't talked to him since the incident.
Clearly he had serious self-esteem issues and wanted to be angry at someone other than himself. Glad your friend called him out on it.
That's why I told him that I think he's successful if he thinks he's successful. If he has a problem with where he's at, that's on him. I wanted to project that to him, but he was being too pushy to notice.
As the years go by, it's harder to imagine what life was like before the invention of the things we take for granted today. Things like cell phones that boast professional camera functions, ordering food online, and of course, social media.
Ask any 18-year-old what the world was like before social media came along, and they won't be able to answer. I barely remember that world!
Some people are worried about the way social media has overtaken the lives of children and wonder if we should place age restrictions on social media. Currently, most social media sites stipulate that users must be at least 13 years of age to register for an account.
Wondering if we should Redditor aussieredditooor asked:
"Would the world be a better place if we put a minimum age of 18 on social media, why/why not?"
The responses were quite mixed. Some people definitely thought the idea of placing an age restriction on social media was a winner.
"Facebook should go back to being just for college students. Once they opened up to everyone the world collectively became more dumb than it already was. There's that tweet that talks about parents warning children about the dangers of the internet, only to be the ones who should have taken heed of those words."
– ParticularBiscotti66
"Yes I’ve been suggesting this for a while. Social media is damaging for children. They should have a right to be kids and not worry about sh*tty insta posts. They also deserve to have some solitude after school and not be bullied through social media at home."
– Ionlypost1ce
"There’s more than just one problem and some of them absolutely involve kids. Cyberbullying, for example, is absolutely a kids problem just as much as an adult problem."
– Formo1287
"Abso-f*cking-lutley"
"It's ridiculously hard enough for adults to navigate the complexities of online communication, let alone children, adolescents, and teens... Whose BRAINS are still developing."
"Studies have shown for years that a rise in online communication is detrimental to interpersonal skills."
– Longjumping_Ad_1477
"Yes 10 year olds don't need to see all the garbage people be posting. Kids don't need to know all the drama and hate. They need to learn to be nice and respectful before coming to social media. Social media made me see thing that I will never forget."
– HornyDragons69
Others think the age restriction should go the other way. Instead of having a minimum age requirement, social media sites should institute a maximum age requirement.
"I think a maximum age would have a better effect honestly"
– VanillaThunder324
"Kids aren't the problem, they just laugh at memes and make dumb jokes the same as the rest of us."
"Put a maximum age like 65. Kick all the senior citizens off. They're the ones who promote violence, hate, etc."
– Yvaelle
"It would be a better place if we put a maximum age of 40 on social media."
– Albae87
"Only if we do a maximum age limit too. Both extremes of the age spectrum seem to make it a habit of posting the first vile thing that comes to their mind without a second thought as to whether it is factual or will cause hurt to others."
– jenni_anydots
Some people think social media should be done away with altogether.
"Getting rid of social media will make the world a better place."
– Deleted User
"Just get rid of social media all together and things would be a lot better in this world"
– Bout2Drop
"No. I think we should get rid of social media entirely, at least in its current forms. We need to get rid of all kinds of internet points, infinite scrolling, suggested content algorithms, targeted ads, and everything else that makes social media as addictive and divisive as it is. We need international laws about misinformation, hate speech, and encouraging violence, and if we can't make that happen then we should segregate it by country to lessen the chances of the real world being influenced by foreign trolls and the kind of memey BS that got Trump elected."
"We're better off interacting with the people in our local communities, and trying to change things in real life instead of complaining about them online and drawing validation from echo chambers on the internet. We can't live in a fantasy world forever, and we'll only dig ourselves into deeper holes if we try."
– NutSockMushroom
Most people agree that implementing an age restriction won't stop kids from using social media.
"Is that going to stop teens from going on their adults account? Not really. So it won’t help"
– Rude-Taco2140
"People won't magically understand how to use the internet safely once they become of age. Blocking children won't work. We need to be educating children on how to engage with the internet safely, how to set boundaries and how to follow them."
– BipedSnowman
"I signed up for MySpace at 11 or 12 when I think you had to be 13, most of my friends did the same. Same with Facebook when it had age limits back in the day. Hard to actually verify unless you have to put in your social security number or whatever equivalent other countries use for background checks which is a kinda dangerous slope."
– fenderdean13
"I mean, adult-only sites say "You can only view this content if youre 18+", do kids just be like "Oh ok I'll come back when Im 18"?"
– SurferSmith
However, it seems most people think an age restriction is a bad idea.
"I have only been over 18 for less than a year, so I’ll have to say no. I think that sheltering is one of the worst ways to teach safety. Also, I have learned about so many topics that I never would have without the internet."
– NiamhHA
A World Of Knowledge
"Blocking kids from social media would negatively impact minorities, disproportionately to non minorities. Many queer youth rely on the internet for support and advice to navigate the world safely."
– BipedSnowman
"As I used internet as a form of escapism as well, and it also helped me learn about my bisexuality and my ADHD."
– JesseAster
"I definitely found a lot of good help from online subgroups when I was younger. It’s tough bc there definitely is a lot of bad out there and it’s important we teach good Internet guidelines as a precautionary to avoid issues. I know my family was quite spoken on how I shouldn’t ever share any private info"
– foreveralonesolo
And that's the answer. Social media in and of itself isn't evil. In fact, sometimes, it's necessary. Between helping kids deal with their loneliness and depression, passing along important and truthful information, and just allowing ease of communication and teamwork, social media is a very good thing.
While the public's concerns are valid, getting rid of social media, or restricting who can and can't use it isn't the answer. Educating people on internet safety and what counts as helpful on social media, and what only causes harm, is the way to go.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below
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It's all our deepest fear to fall flat on our faces when there's a bunch of people around. No one wants to look the fool, and no one wants to look the fool especially when it happens before a group of people you're going to see every day for the forseeable future.
Embarrassing moments can come out of nowhere, but how you handle yourself in the aftermath is what matters. Laugh it off, shake it off, go with the chuckles, and let the people know you can't be hurt by it.
Well, unless you're any of the people in the stories below. Then I'd consider getting a new address and name.
Reddit user, Konke420xd, wanted to know when the shame was too much to handle when they asked:
"What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever witnessed?"
School seems like a good place to slip up and make a fool of yourself. Surely, everyone will treat it with care and kindness right?
Right?
"Oral," Not "Oral"
"I was a sophomore in HS (so around 16) taking the last leg of my county's sex ed class. It was a co-ed day, so our full gym class of about 30 kids was in the room. Topic was STD's. The teacher mentioned oral sex a few times and I guess which diseases can be spread through it. One guy who was always pretty quiet and shy raised his hand and said "I just don't really understand how you can get an STD from talking about sex..."
"It took everyone, including the teacher, a few seconds to understand, but some quiet laughter came from a few students. the teacher then of course had to explain as simply as she could that oral sex did not in fact mean talking about sex (I think the stupid bylaws of the program in our county didn't allow her to fully disclose what it was)."
"Anyway, we thought he was joking but as he heard the laughter from everyone after getting this explained to him, he slowly put his head down and covered his face for the next few minutes. Poor guy. I felt bad, but it was hard not to laugh. At least no one directly gave him sh-t for it afterward"
shlumpy_dumpyyyyy
Keep Your Preferences At Home
"Community college in Tampa, 2009. Spanish class. Shy goth girl walks to the front of the class and plugs in her USB drive to boot up her PPT and begin her presentation like the rest of us did. Except when she pluged it in, a file opened up and the most vile anime porn started playing. Everyone was mortified for her. It took her maybe 3-4 seconds to turn it off but the moment felt like forever. She said, "THIS IS MY BOYFRIEND'S DRIVE!" and ran out of the room crying. The teacher just moved on. The girl didn't show her face for a week. Just an absolutely insane moment."
grandpasmoochie
Triumph, Glory, Embarrassment
"At a pep rally to celebrate a sporting victory, a student insisted that he carry the school flag and run laps around the team. He tripped and fell onto the newly displayed trophy, immediately breaking it. This was on the front page of Reddit for a bit and I’m glad I witnessed it as my school’s claim to fame."
NathanialH0rnblower
When You Want To Stand Up To A Bully But Fail
"There was this kid in my high school that was taking karate classes. He decided he wanted to fight a kid that was bullying him after school in the town park. A sh-t ton of people went. He got all pumped up before the fight. Instantly, once the fight started, he began doing karate moves at the air. Once he reached the bully, the first thing he decided to do was a very flashy "spinning backhand"(?). He missed by a mile and was knocked out immediately. I felt really bad for him. He was always known for not being able to read situations very well and that, being his first normal fight, was just the absolute worst time to try that move out. Bullies suck. It was embarrassing for both of them."
meetmeinthebthrm
Public places seem like the perfect spot to get into all sorts of chicanery. After all, nobody is going to judge you for it on the internet.
Except, of course, that's exactly what we'll do.
To Be Fair, He Made The Right Call About His Idiocy
"Alright, so my husband and I were driving around the city and it was pouring outside. Absolutely pouring. We were about to pass the lightrail train tracks (going in both directions) when the crossing gates came down because the lightrail was approaching."
"One idiot in a van decided he could make it across before the gates came all the way down. He kept on driving, but he did not make it. Instead, his vehicle was now trapped between the gates."
"We could see from our car that this person was PANICKING. His life was flashing before his eyes. In his movie mind, the lightrail was about to crash into the van and drag it for dozens of yards before finally stopping... so he did what anyone would do. He violently pushed the door open and RAN in the pouring rain for his life."
"He was halfway down the street before he stopped, turned around, and noticed that the lightrail was patiently waiting for him to move the vehicle. The door was still open. My husband and I just about pissed ourselves laughing."
JoyceReardon
Keep Your Passions At Home
"I was watching a symphony orchestra concert at the Sydney Opera House one evening. The concert hall foyer has these huge glass windows beneath the sails that overlook the harbourside. The sun hadn't quite set yet, and every audience member that was exiting the hall could see this incredibly drunk middle aged couple having sex on a bench outside the hall."
cowbelljazz
When It's Not Just A Towel
"Was in a pool at a Euro beach resort. We’d been chatting with an old brit tourist, he got out of the pool and went to get changed poolside, using his towel to do the discrete swimming tog shuffle."
"Suddenly up steps an angry Frenchmam wanting HIS towel back..."
"Turns out our poor retired gent had grabbed the wrong towel. There ensued a desperate tug-of-towel as a very stroppy Frenchman attempted to rip his towel from this poor old guy who was butt naked and frantically trying to save his modesty."
"The old guy’s grandson saved the day, with an emergency towel transfer, but not before the whole pool complex had seen way too much hairy old British grandpa scrote."
Bigfoothobbit
We're Not As Cool As We Think
"I was at a food court and I got the brilliant idea to jump over a row of those plastic chairs and tables.. You know, the ones that are fixed to the floor."
"Foot got caught and I fell flat on my face. I stood up to 30 people clapping. One guy yelled asking for my autograph."
Niteryder007
Perhaps the lesson best learned from these following stories is to make sure you use the bathroom before you leave the house.
Otherwise, well...
Take It To The Dance Floor?
"I was on a high end cruise line at dinner. An older lady got up to go to the bathroom but missed and pooped herself in the dining room entrance. She left her panties there and continued on to the bathroom."
SimbaOne1988
Maybe We Should All Only Poop At Home...
"I used to work in nightclubs. I once witnessed a girl leaning against a wall, casually flirting with a guy and as she laughed she actually sh-t herself. She was wearing a white dress and there was no hiding what had happened. The smell actually cleared the whole level of the club. She ran out crying. We had to clean poo off the floor where she had been standing. I often wonder what she is doing now..."
Vaiken_Vox
I think the lesson we can take from all of these is anything you would normally do in private that, in the moment, feels right to do in public, don't. Just, don't.
Have you ever seen something so embarrassing you felt bad from the person? Tell us about it in the comments.
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Not everyone is capable of mastering the art of conversation.
It takes skill to perpetuate a lively discussion while also being a respectful listener.
Some people are naturals at this.
Others, however, make up for their self-aware verbal shortcomings by overcompensating. Unfortunately, the ruse ends up exposing their insecurity, much to the delight of their amused audience.
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor TheArchitect_7 asked:
"What’s a thing dumb people say that makes them think they sound smart?"

Some people just want reactions more than a back-and-forth interaction.
Attention-Seeker
"'You wouldn't understand.' Yeah, that's why I asked you for an explanation."
– Appropriate_Donkey18
Fancy Words
"I sometimes use big words that I don't really understand to make myself sound more ambidextrous."
– Alone_Ad1278
Looking At The Score
"The more someone emphasizes their IQ, the less smart I think they actually are."
– rmshilpi
Hackneyed Sayings
"Everything happens for a reason, nothing is actually 'free' as someone has to pay for it, both parties are the same, you may have book smarts, but I have street smarts, common sense isn't so common anymore, but that's how we've always done it!"
"An addition to the previous: 'We will send 40 billion to Ukraine, but we won't spend 40 billion to secure our schools!'"
– humorous_anecdote
Things can get wacky when dealing with someone who is cantankerous.
Futile Argument
"Something along the lines of 'You can’t prove it didn’t happen.'"
"A guy at work tried to pull this one on me. He believed one of those Animal Planet mockumentaries about a giant killer shark was real. When I told him it was all fiction and that there was no real proof of this kind of stuff, he tried to argue back about while he couldn’t prove it, I couldn’t disprove it either."
"There’s a saying about getting into an argument with a stupid person. This was my real world experience with it."
– WongoKnight
Status
"Do you know who I am?"
– FoxFourTwo
The Equivalent Of Winning
"Thinking that getting a reaction out of someone is the same thing as winning an argument."
– bcopes158
Please Define
"My friend once used the phrase 'By its very definition' while we were arguing about something...so I asked him what the definition actually was, while he fumbled with that a bit I told him to stop using weasel words."
– groovyinutah
No Kidding
"'it all depends on how you look at it.' yeah thats f'king obvious."
– psychpopnprogncore
We all love a good malaprop.
Or Intents
"For all intensive purposes"
– p38-lightning
It's Moot, Really
“Mute point”
"Cracks me up every time."
– Ed_The_Bloody
Sometimes, editing yourself a bit in discourse with those who are intellectually out of your league is better than trying to keep up with them in an attempt to win their favor by articulating something you know nothing about.
I would explain better, but you wouldn't understand.
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*The following article contains discussion of suicide/self-harm.
Positive memories stay with us forever that we can always revisit with a smile.
Witnessing a loved one receiving their diploma after years of dedicated studying, celebrating a sports victory with other teammates, or traveling to a dream destination with your significant other after months–even years–of careful planning.
But in addition to reveling in nostalgia, there are other life experiences we'd like to soon forget but have a difficult time shaking off.
Curious to hear about some of the more ominous events experienced by strangers online, Redditor IM_Not_A_Robot_10110 asked:
"What have you witnessed that will haunt you forever?"

What happens inside hospitals are full of trauma and heartache, even medical professionals have a hard time processing what they encounter.
The Pediatric Patient
"X-ray tech here, but I was a student at the time. Called to ER for trauma code. Only know it's a pediatric patient. The terror as I walk around the corner and see it's a little boy, same size as my son. We go to take an x-ray and he's making this high pitched shrill wheezing noise. They couldn't intubate enroute so we were doing a chest/neck to see what was going on. His neck was full of air."
"Come to find out the story later, he had tripped and fallen in school and his neck went square on a desk and he had broken his trachea. Believe he was stabilized & flown out. Never found out what happened after."
– ZephyrGrace
Calling Time Of Death
"ER nurse. This won’t haunt me in a bad way, but it’ll stick with me for sure. We were coding a middle aged lady we knew was going to die. We were pulling out the last ditch stuff hoping we’d get lucky, but everyone knew which way it was going."
"Family was there and in the room. When it was clear we had run through all the Hail Marys and it was time to call it, the husband spoke up for the first time. He had apparently been an EMT for a long time so he knew what he was looking at. He said he was going to do the final round of compressions."
"It was very respectfully done. He got up to do his 2 minutes, the nurses quietly started turning things off so there wouldn’t be continuous alarms, we called for a pulse check which the husband did, then we called time of death. He was thankful we let him do that and I was thankful to be a part of it."
– pause_and_consider
Missing Jaw
"Not me, but my roommates fiancé is a flight nurse. She told me this story around Easter."
"They showed up to a scene being told beforehand that there was a patient with a gun shot wound and bleeding bad but that’s all they were told. When they got there they found a woman who was sitting on the ambulance gurney completely lucid and looking around, completely missing her lower jaw. She said you could see down her throat and she looked like a zombie. Her lower jaw was hanging to the side by some tissue and when she looked about it swung around and dangled. She said the woman seemed relatively calm and when she tried to speak what was left of her tongue kinda moved but nothing but gurgles came out."
"It was not a suicide, her boyfriend accidentally discharged his firearm while they were in his car."
"She survived."
– New_Hand_Luke
AIDS Epidemic Era
"Retired RN. I was working in the PACU and helped another nurse take her patient to his room. As I was adjusting something by his head, he grabbed my hand and started crying. He kept saying I don’t want to die. He was barely 20. In an isolation room. I looked into his eyes and tried to comfort him as he sobbed. This was in the early days of the 'AIDS epidemic.' He died within a week. To this day I still see his eyes and hear him sobbing."
– Tkay906363
Traffic accidents can be some of the most gruesome scenes no one should ever have to witness.
Accident Victim
"I live next to a busy street, inbetween lanes is a tram station. Teenager wanted to cross and got run over by a tram. Well, partly run over, he ended up with his body squeezed in between the tram and the tram station wall, with his legs stuck under the tram. It took about 1,5 hours until they had the equipment to lift the tram to get him out of there. They managed to reanimate what was left of him but he died in the hospital."
– ir_blues
Dangerous Road
"It was Easter Sunday about 5 in the afternoon. I was driving home from the lake with a friend of mine on a country highway that’s pretty well traveled. It’s one of those single lane coming and single lane going where the speed limit is 70 roads. The intersections are far and few between so instead of an overpass it’s just a blinking yellow caution light. In what literally felt like the blink of an eye the car driving in front of me is struck on the drivers side door."
"The impact pushes both cars off to the road and onto the shoulder. I hit my brakes and was able to stop to help render aid. My friend and I get out of the car and run over to help. The drivers side door is crushed inward, driver has been pushed into the passenger side. It was a younger lady, maybe mid 30s. The impact pushed her out of her seat and into her daughter."
"You ever see movies where a dead body jump scares someone and it just stares at the with wide eyes and mouth agape….. yeah. The girl is ok but very confused. She has no visible injuries and is freely looking around so we unbuckled her and pulled her out of the car so she didn’t realize her mom was laying on her. As we do it I look at the mom and I can see a little life is left in her, so I said the only thing we could say. 'She’s alright.'”
"You could see the light in her eyes fade and she passes away. More cars stop and help out. As more people are here to help I start to realize that someone has been screaming, at me. In the back seat is her son. He must have been knocked unconscious and he’s now yelling, not out in pain but asking 'Is mom okay, is she okay?' I had no words for him, he was maybe 6. His sister was about 9. Thankfully about 4 of the cars that stopped were off duty first responders so they quickly took over for me. This was about 20 years ago, I was 17 at the time and I just saw a mom die in front of her 2 kids. I’m crying now thinking back on it and to this day I still refuse to ever take that road again."
"They finally build an actual stop light a couple years back. The area isn’t more crowded so I can only imagine what the motivation to improve that intersection was."
– Boothulu
Pedestrians
"I was designated driver at my friend's 30th birthday party. Had just dropped off my last friend and I was heading home. Little blue car zipped by me going maybe 10 over. Maybe a block ahead of me I see the speeding car hit two 20 yr olds who were running across the street. They were running to McDonald's across from the nightclub they were partying at and didn't wait for a red light. I'll never forget the girls blond hair in the bright headlights as she got hit. One thing that isn't ever correct in tv shows when people get hit by cars is how much damage it does to a human body. I distinctly remember his legs laying like 2m from his body. Both died right when paramedics got there."
– SuchAGeoNerd
PTSD
"Getting hit by a car really is ugly. My girlfriend accidentally stepped on the street while we were having a minor disagreement and bam she was gone in a moment. I have ptsd, I can still see all the blood, her trying to breathe and the moment she gave up."
– More-Masterpiece-561
You never know when a friend or acquaintance is going through an extremely rough time–even though they present themselves differently in public.
All we could ever be as fellow humans is to always be compassionate.
Prolonged Guilt
"I found my roommates body in our apartment when I was in college. He had suffocated himself with a helium tank and a plastic bag over his head. That fucked me up pretty good, especially because I knew he was struggling with his mental health. He was cutting himself too, he tried to hide it but I noticed. And I didn’t say a word, i didn’t offer a helping hand. I could have done something to help him, but I didn’t. That guilt is still there, 10 years down the line."
– Jon__Snuh
What The Taxi Driver Witnessed
"I was driving Taxi once and I picked up someone who said he thinks he just saw a dead body. Said someone had jumped from the top of the parking garage. There was already an ambulance and what not on the scene. I remember briefly thinking of my friend Willzo, but dismissed it, I didn’t even think he was depressed like that. I found it odd that I would even consider such a thing out of nowhere. But I dismissed the thought and went about my work night. Couple days later I got a call from a mutual friend. 'Hey buddy, did you hear about Will? He jumped off the parking garage a few days ago.'”
– Everywhere-Danger
These Redditors' stories are a lot to take in.
However, they are good reminders about the brevity of life and how we should always strive towards being the best versions of ourselves while we're still alive.
Because you never know when you or someone close to you will have their last breath.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
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