We'd like to think we're pretty good judges of character.
We tend to gravitate toward like-minded individuals, friendliness, and general positive vibes that they can be trusted.
Unfortunately, our barometer for judging quality friends can be a little off, and hopefully, by the time we realize it, there has been no emotional–or heaven forbid, physical—harm.
Curious to hear experiences from strangers online, Redditor sugarthnder asked:
"What made you realize someone you knew was actually completely f'ked in the head?"
Figuring out the psyche of certain people is enough to drive a person mad.
The One Who Had Zero Fs To Give
"Was like 15 and my dog just died. Absolutely devastated and was so upset all I wanted to do was go play basketball at the gym. On my way I stop at my best friend's house to tell him the news. He sees I'm upset and starts giggling and sh*t and I was like wtf man whatever."
"As I'm leaving one of the last things he says is 'Hey * my name* where's your dog!?!?' And completely breaks down laughing. Hands on his knees crying. To this day I am still awed at the lack of empathy he extended toward me."
– Acrobatic-Compote-12
The Egregious Ruse
"When they told our friend group of 15 years they had brain cancer and would be dead in 3 months. Went on going away vacation with everyone, cried a million tears, made funeral plans, had therapy sessions about it... They are still alive, never had cancer."
"Turns out they were just worried they were going to jail for embezzling money. Smh, still not sure how that was going to play out well."
– 7Kayman7
Being Hangry
"When she threatened to pour paint thinner on me in the shower because she was mad that I didn't know what she wanted to eat."
– WankyMyHanky603
How do we know if we're in the company of potentially violent people? Sometimes we don't find out until too late.
Can Crusher
"Not my story, but a friend's."
"His buddy was sitting around the fire, hanging out and chatting with everyone else. The guy finished his beer, turned to his wife and crushed the can on her forehead, which knocked her out like a light."
"My buddy said 'that guy says he loves his wife, but he did that to her. I'm not going to wait around to find out what he'd do to me.'"
- Godwinson4King
Interesting Activity For Fun
"A guy I went to school with told me he stabbed himself with a flat head screwdriver for fun."
– BluebomberV
The Pretend Target
"Went out hunting."
"While we were taking a break, he pointed his rifle at my head, paused, and pulled the trigger."
"It wasn't loaded. I left and never went anywhere with him again."
– Swerfbegone
Animal Cruelty
"Let them stay at my place and their dog pooped on the carpet. Woke up to them beating the dog with a metal bat at 1am. Edit: the dog is ok, he lived a long healthy life afterward. She was arrested and her kids were taken away."
– aboxofquackers
Passion and sex drive have their limits.
Obsessed Fan
"When my friend showed me her money and plans to travel to the state of Washington."
"She was planning to steal Edward Cullen from Bella. Twilight was 100% real in her head."
"Last I heard, she had got into some hard drugs."
– cooldart61
Form Of Child Abuse
"When a colleague told me that she had very intense sex with her new boyfriend... in front of her 7 years old son watching all of it."
"She was proud of that and kept giving every detail possible even when we asked her not to. She had a new boyfriend every few weeks and it was always the same sh*t."
– Coc0tte
Awkwardly Proud Brother
"This guy I met in college was a very nice guy. After knowing him for about 9 months, I went to his house in the Summer for the first time. Before we went in, he told me about his sister's 'humungous @ss', and would not quit rambling on about it."
"He even went on about how she was 'blessed with that @ss'. However, the defining moment was when he walked in, and slapped her butt. She said 'stop!' in an embarrassed voice, and shoved him away, as if they were 'playing'(I don't think she liked it at all)."
"Needless to say, I began distancing myself from him more, and more after that home visit."
– Throwawaydrowssap
It's easy to casually view people who are not all there in the head as "crazy" people and make them a punchline.
But I've learned to be more aware of people who are struggling with mental health issues. My babysitter, who use to be the sweetest girl I've ever known since I was a kid, was committed to a mental institution.
To my eyes, there was nothing ever off about her. But she turned out to be bipolar and fell into a deep depression. It pains me to think about her, how she died alone, how she lived in darkness for years and no one ever saw it coming.
Sometimes, people just want to be seen or heard. And when they feel invisible, their frustrations manifest in unexpected ways—some to violent effect.
All I can do is just remember that only kindness matters.
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"The sun was about the size of a basketball, and the earth was on the opposite side of the room, the size of a small marble, I'd guess about 30 metres away."
"The moon was the size of a tiny pinhead, about 10cm away from the earth."
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"It would be 10,000km away."
"And that's just one star, the nearest one to us, in a galaxy containing billions of stars, which is just one of billions of galaxies."
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"Far bigger than we can begin to comprehend."- Qabbalah
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Sarah Palin Can Confirm...
"USA is only 2.4 miles from Russia."
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But Where Did "Ginger" Come From?
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"That's why gingers are called redheads."- I_might_be_weasel
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But What Did They Want To Do With Those Cobras?
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Perception Can Be Dangerously Misleading
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Loop Time GIF by PsyklonGiphyOne thing that makes science so remarkable is how difficult it can be to believe.
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Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.
Redditor Jeffery_DahmerTV wanted to discuss the ideas that sound too crazy that they have to be true, so they asked:
"What is the most believable conspiracy Theory?"
In this day and age of alternative facts, it all seems like lies and truth.
Enlighten me.
Infection
Sick Computer Virus GIF by Achievement HunterGiphy"That computer viruses are made by antivirus companies to test their antivirus software."
astarisaslave
"Parents bought a new computer recently, the McAfee stuff was in there pretty deep to remove. The staff bogged it down, way faster afterward."
lt12765
War
"We are being goaded into waging culture wars that don't matter to keep us from waging class wars."
virgilreality
"Is this a conspiracy theory though? It would be if you assume it was engineered from the start, but this would also make it very unbelievable. But that existing conflicts had been fueled and taken advantage of by people in the position to for millennia is well evident I'd say."
Leseleff
Double Down
"Mattress Firm is a front for laundering money. There is no other reason for there to be so many. No one is ever even in there."
Free_Bingo
"Double down on this one! I have a Mattress Firm next to my job and I have never seen anyone in there ever. It’s been six years!"
cbcmama781
"I’m not convinced of this. Our local Mattress Firm is clearly baking $1k+ into their margins and then aggressively selling credit-based financing. Selling two or three a month probably covers everything."
Agloe_Dreams
Weather Issues
Climate Change Earth GIFGiphy"Those climate protestors that glue themselves to the road are hired by oil giants to make climate activists look stupid."
milanvlaman
"I feel this way about a lot of 'extremist' groups on both sides, that there are plants from the other side doing really stupid stuff just to discredit the idea."
Herr_Poopypants
The climate is changing. We have to come together. How is that a conspiracy?
That's All
Meryl Streep Pursed Lips GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"That the fashion industry purposefully doesn’t put pockets in women’s clothing so they have to carry purses."
diceunodixon
Financial Clean Up
"That the only reason that the US government doesn’t do anything with student debt loans is because then people would stop signing up for the army."
Brotastic29
"That and healthcare.
"When you join up you get healthcare fully covered for you and your family, and you can get a full college education.
If the government started providing either of those for civilians, no one would need to join the military anymore."
redF5veStandingBy
"I think so too. I know and agree with what that dude was saying but when I see or hear people use 'Army' as a way to generalize the military, it usually means that what they said is something they’re just repeating what they heard."
chefboiortiz
The Commission
"There's definitely more to JFK's assassination than the Warren commission made it out to be. Whether or not LHO was the sole killer, I find it fishy that the CIA was so desperate to hide information from the public."
Bitter-Record-3831
"There is a very well-done documentary that concludes it was an accidental discharge from a Secret Service agent in one of the cars ahead of him."
Babstana
"CIA probably considered the assassination a declaration of war against Russia. They’re probably covering up that they were about to start WW3 over it."
tangcameo
Dairy Pounds
"The Great cheese conspiracy. Each year the US government buys more and more milk to make more and more cheese. The US government is sitting on something like 2 billion pounds of cheese. Just to artificially inflate milk prices."
worfhill
"Not even a conspiracy, just an example of the government controlling the economy in favor of dairy farmers."
Glass_Pies
"I watched a documentary about this. It's actually true."
PreferredSex_Yes
They're Listening
government agent GIF by South Park Giphy"That the CIA posts questions like this on Reddit to measure their past and current work, brainstorm for future projects."
ZRX1200R
Ominous
"I have a conspiracy theory about conspiracy theories. I believe the governments and 'leaders' of the world are actually rather incompetent, so much so, that they require the illusion of them being an ominous all-powerful all-seeing entity in order to remain in power."
"And to accomplish this they allow conspiracy theories like the Illuminati and etc to spread around to add a bit of urban myth to how 'powerful' they are."
"It's probably all a bunch of garbage Europe can barely communicate within itself you expect there to be some secret global order??? Oh, stop it haha."
SparkNoJoyThrw01
Sifting through what could and could not be true, could take forever.
Life is full of mystery.