We've all been there. An old friend from high school shoots you a message and asks how you've been. They comment on how your kids are growing up or a recent accomplishment. You feel happy to hear from them only to get the dreaded “I wanted to share this exciting opportunity with you" and realize too late it was an MLM trap.
Some closer friends get cut off for far more though. If you had someone in your life who isn't supportive, tried to undercut you, or harm people, you wouldn't want to stick around. One Reddit user wanted to hear others' experiences with this.
Redditor KingBean_ asked the community:
“What's the moment you realized your close friend was an a-hole?"
There were some intense stories from other users who encountered major friend letdowns.
Ghost friends...
“The moment I couldn't be available whenever they needed, they lashed out and disappeared off the map, only to reappear recently because they wanted to crash at my place. No way.”
“or, yeah, just disappear for months and then text you "Hey! what's up? Miss you!" and then you realize they actually just need something from you...maybe that's not as close of a friend as I thought, I'm realizing.”
Some tricky toxicity.
“When he propositioned my girlfriend to have sex with him under the guise of making sure she was being faithful to me.”
“So if she accepts, he gets free sex. If she rejects, he's the "hero" for testing her virtue. Brilliant plan. What could possibly go wrong?”
“what he had tried to do made him no better than a rapist.”
“He tried to abduct a lost, drunk woman from a bar. We were getting ready to leave a crowded bar one night and my friend went to use the restroom. When he came back he was supporting a woman who was so drunk she could barely walk.”
“He said that she had lost her friends and we should take her back to our hotel room. I told him that we should help her find her friends and asked her for her name. My friend looked pissed and said that we should just go.”
“She managed to slur that her name was Amy. I then went to the DJ and asked him to announce to the bar that Amy had lost her friends, needed their help, and to come find her at the bar. During this my friend tried to walk Amy out of the bar, but security stopped him at the door.”
“Luckily Amy's fiends immediately came to the bar to get her and got her away from my friend. Afterwards my friend was pissed, because ‘I had ruined his good time.’”
“I told him that he was disgusting, that taking that girl back to our hotel would have been abduction, and that what he had tried to do made him no better than a rapist. I stopped hanging out with him after that.“
“Now he's got a girl he barely knows pregnant...”
“Everytime he broke up with a girl he would go on and on about how crazy she was. Everytime he got a new gf he would force every member of the friend group to be friends with her, which was really awkward because we knew how the story would end. Didn't help that he had a history of cheating.”
“He also liked to talk about who ever wasn't in the room. Once he started getting passive aggressive with my wife I blew up at him. Now he's got a girl he barely knows pregnant and they're both unemployed. F**k em.”
Power trip much?
“When he complained and got a server at Texas Roadhouse ‘fired’ over a $2 shortage...and was laughing and bragging about it. Like, it made him feel good / important that he cost someone their job.”
“As a side note, we are no longer friends and, about 2 weeks later, we (me, my wife, and daughter) had the same server at the same Texas Roadhouse.”
Taking responsibility is part of being an adult...
“When I realized I was her last close friend left. Shortly thereafter I started to open my eyes and understand why that was the case. A lot of it was that she is a master at justifying her own bad decisions. Nothing is ever a big deal to her.”
“When her electricity got shut off, it was because ‘stuff happens.’ When she got fired from her fourth job in a year, it was ‘ok, I'm going to cruise on unemployment and give myself time to focus on art.’ When she forgot someone's birthday, it was because birthdays triggered her anxiety.”
“And when she was served with divorce papers after refusing to attend marriage counseling, she insisted she had done everything in her power to save her marriage. She is never wrong in her eyes and is the only adult I've seen consistently regress in life because of it. In the end, a 12 year friendship devolved into an absolute nightmare for me.”
If your dog doesn’t like them, there’s your sign...
“I told him I liked a girl and he told me he liked her, too. No big deal, except he then pretended to ask her if she liked me just so that he could lie and say 'yeah bro she doesn't like you.'"
“He also sabotaged someone guy's relationship so that he could date his girlfriend, only to dump her a week later. A mutual friend casually said it was because the guy was a d!ck, and so he deserved to have his relationship sabotaged."
“He's also been telling me that random people 'really don't like me' even though I have literally never interacted with them, have hardly seen them, and mostly keep to myself. Even if it was true, how would he know? Why would these people who apparently hate me be talking about a guy that they've hardly ever met?"
“It's interesting because when I first brought him to my house, my dog kept growling at him. I brushed it off at the time."
Girl bye!
Bai Girl Bye GIF by OriginalsGiphy“he told me that she'd been thinking about it and there was no way the baby I was carrying could be by my partner, I must be lying to cover up sleeping with another man. She said she'd added up all the dates and it just didn't work. Then when I asked her to stop talking about it (because it wasn't true!) She told me I didn't have enough friends to cut contact with her. Wrong. See ya."
“I distinctly remember her bragging about how she lied..”
“Had a friend in college who would occasionally lie to get off work or make up a reason to seem more interesting is and then. I didn't think that much of it until I distinctly remember her bragging about how she lied to someone just because she could and how funny she found it that the person believed her and was making fun of them for it (when it was a ‘believable lie’) and I was sort of baffled that she thought her lying made the other person dumb and didn't just make her immoral or scheming. Due to this and other things we didn't remain friends for very long.”
“I found out my dad was dying and I have barely heard from her since.”
“When I spent years listening to her problems giving advice lending money when she needed it (I did get it back) and just generally being there for her then I broke down on her once when I found out my dad was dying and I have barely heard from her since.”
Friendship, like any relationship, has its ups and downs but it's important cut toxic people in your life. Friends celebrat each other's accomplishments, and also hold each other accountable when they've down something wrong. This is how we grow. Cheers to the positive friendships in life!
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Redditor OfficialVickiLuv wanted to share the truths we need to know, so they asked:
"What is a common 'fact' that you know is bulls**t?"
There is no such thing as an alternative fact.
So let's start there.
Not a Forest
the ice pirates shaving GIF by Warner ArchiveGiphy"Shaving makes your hair grow back thicker."
Heavy_Educator9822
"I used to believe this one. I was very disappointed when I learned it was BS."
leebon427
Both Sides
"There are two kinds of thinkers: Right brain people are who are creative, and the people that use the left side who can do math."
Beaver_Buster
"Try telling that to psychologists/psychiatrists who do research/clinical studies/trials. I’ve been denied dozens of times to partake in research studies revolving around mental health, specifically depression, and anxiety."
"Why did they deny me [even tho I was a perfect candidate]? Because I write with my left hand. And apparently it would make their study 'invalid' because they 'don’t want to interfere with results.'"
"Please tell me how excluding a large amount of people from a research study would somehow give you the correct answer for treating mental health for everybody?"
asianstyleicecream
Find them...
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Zatiebars
"Especially with children, the quicker the police can get to the 'crime' scene the fresher the evidence and easier to follow leads. I used crime in quotes because there could have been a crime or the kid might have just wandered off."
"But it's not just for kids though... If you know someone is a home body and never leaves home and you know something has happened, by all means call the police. Even if they like to take random trips, it never hurts to inform the law."
Zatiebars
Crackle... Pop
"Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis."
Famous-Background329
"Probably just normal. Cracks are just little bubbles of nitrogen that settle where there's space. They don't build up over time, once the space is occupied by a little bubble then no more can join it. A knuckle that hasn't been cracked in 50 years is the same as a knuckle that hasn't been cracked in a few hours."
ConstantSignal
Give a Howl
Angry Wolf GIF by CuriosityStreamGiphy"Alpha wolves being real. The guy who did the original study disproved his one study and gets mad when people get it wrong now... lol."
Silverj0
"Came looking for this, also extrapolating this BS to human beings and 'sigma,' go read. The articles are all available. It's nonsense that people still believe s* like this with access to everything in their hands."
artemispock
The wolf pack is always ready.
Trivia
Facts GIF by Judge JerryGiphy"A 'factoid' is an often repeated statement that isn't true, but is now believed to be true due to people saying it all the time. Its not a mini fact, or like, fun piece of trivia."
JackofScarlets
Breakfast Companies
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The quote was made by Kellogg's to make people buy more cereal. If you search up articles that say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, most are sponsored by Kellogg's."
Jazzlike-Caramel7103
"I’m not sure Kellogg’s made it up. In my country there’s a saying that’s been around forever that alludes to the importance of breakfast that goes 'have breakfast like a king and dinner like a poor person.' Kellogg’s might’ve simply exploited an existing popular belief."
kaleidoscopichazard
Hey Stumpy
"Caffeine makes you short."
CForey62
"This one makes me laugh. I've been drinking coffee since I was like 9 years old and turned out 190cm tall."
TurquoiseBeetle67
Spuds
"Potatoes absorb toxins. The amount of people that believe putting potato slices in your shoes or wear them around your neck as a holistic medical treatment is shockingly high. It’s just oxidation."
wheresmychin
"I recall seeing a antivaxx meme that said if you had to get a COVID shot to put a potato slice at the injection site to absorb all the toxins. I’m all for sharing that idea if it makes people get vaccinated."
OrangeTree81
Look Out
Flying Fox Bat GIF by Barbara PozziGiphy"Bats are blind."
IWantOneSpatula
"I remember getting into a really stupid argument shortly after high school with a friend over this who just couldn't believe that bats weren't actually blind."
__M-E-O-W__
"Fine. Bats are legally blind."
shifty_coder
Now I've learned more.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.
Redditor KentuckyFriedEel wondered what movie moments have left scars for life, so they asked:
"Which movie scene is really hard to sit through and watch?"
The death of Artax in 'The Neverending Story.'
Scared me for life.
Stop Dialing
vince vaughn beer GIFGiphy"Swingers. Mike calling and leaving messages over and over for the girl whose phone number he got at the bar."
Careless-Ground-7349
"Never. Call. Me. Again."
playblu
Look Away
"Trainspotting. Specifically the scene where they wake up from their drug induced haze to find the dead baby. The decomposition effect made to look like they neglected to check on her for DAYS... Then their best and only response is to shoot up and get high again. Dull the pain. Just tragic."
SqAznPersuasion
INTENSE
"A very good portion of the original French version of Martyrs."
"That movie is both the definition of gore porn, but also a solid story that makes sitting through how uncomfortable it is completely worth it. It’s unfortunate that Hollywood somehow made a mostly shot for shot remake and completely ruined the movie."
egnards
"My housemate and I watched Martyrs and spent like the next three days talking about it, that movie was INTENSE."
raz0rflea
Too Dark
"Green Mile. I leave when Mr Jingles chases the thread bobbin, and again for the execution scene gone wrong. I've seen both scenes once. Don't need to see that again."
Publandlady
"The book is as heart-wrenching as the movie. It's my all-time favorite Stephen King book, but it's tough to get through."
F**kImCold
"When I saw that execution scene as a kid I was at a friend's house and decided to go home right there. Came back next day to finish it though cause didn't wanna get made fun of."
canadianclassic308
Just No!
Bom Dia Hello GIFGiphy"Annihilation. The bear quietly screaming. ‘Help me.'"
"Absolutely not, thank you."
HaunterUsedLick
Never saw that one. Maybe I'll take a peek.
Too Tough
Toni Collette Crying GIF by A24Giphy"Hereditary. Watching the kid just pull up to the bed is pretty tough to watch. The scream by the mom the next morning is also pretty tough."
happymyself
Shiny Trauma
"I've never gone back and watched it again, because it skeeved me out so much, but that scene in Dr. Sleep, where the Shine Vampires are stealing all the shine from that kid through pain was ROUGH."
Horknut1
"I came here to say this. Jacob Tremblay practiced for months before the scene to be sure he could get it right. When the time came to shoot it he did so well that all the Shine Vampires forgot their lines and struggled to finish the scene. The first time I saw it was pretty traumatizing."
Capteverard
True Pain
"The shower scene in Schindlers List. It took me years to get through it, even though it ends up just being a shower and not a gas chamber. Also the Tony episode on the new Dahmer series. I was hysterical watching it and feel sick thinking about how much real people suffered because of him."
ashleylauren3
"I watched Schindlers List for the first and only time a few years ago and couldn't stop crying after."
wearyomask
Dried Up
"The scene in the SpongeBob movie where SpongeBob and Patrick dry up."
crossbowman44
"I know this guy that loved movies and would give me all these high brow recommendations. One Saturday morning, I decided I wanted to watch a movie and was considering one of his recommendations. I watched the SpongeBob movie instead. And I made the right choice. Saturday morning is for cartoons."
Brawndo91
War Crimes
Screaming Matt Damon GIFGiphy"Saving Private Ryan - when the German soldier is plunging the knife into Mellish."
LackOfStack
"For me it is when the medic is dying after attacking the machine gun nest. All those soldiers standing around absolutely helpless."
DramaticWesley
"Oh God don't get me started. Only scene from a movie that gets my physically angry."
crispycritter909
All good movies. All to never watch again.
The ones that have come to fruition but caused an uproar were mentioned when Redditor Future-Game asked:
"What is the most controversial TV shows of all time?"
Shows pushing the envelope were so risqué. Some aged well over time. Others didn't.
Taboo Topics
"I don't know about all time but the time it aired here in Canada, the original Degrassi High series. They covered so many topics that weren't really covered on mainstream shows back then. Even still somewhat taboo today. And everyone my age watched it and talked about it the next day."
– YEGMusic43
Outing Ellen
"When Ellen Degeneres's character came out as gay on her sitcom, there was a f'king firestorm."
– seanofkelley
Tame Drama
"Believe it or not the comedy SOAP was highly controversial when it premiered in the late 70s. It's done by the same people who did GOLDEN GIRLS. SOAP is so tame by today's standards a ten year old could watch it."
– ComedianRepulsive955
Chappelle's Show.
"I like South Park as an answer, but if we are talking about pushing boundaries, Chappelle's show at least deserves a mention. The Black, White Supremacist alone was wild to see on TV, and it was the first episode of the show to air."
– WaKa_
Reality bites. So did these reality competition shows.
Trash Talk Show
"Jerry springer, what a sh*t show."
– Jok3r609
When Looks Are Everything
"The Swan - a show about generally average, everyday women with low self esteem (due to a variety of factors), receiving plastic surgery and whole makeovers. Every episode would feature two ladies and a "winner" would be decided between them. At the end of the season, all of the winners would be put in a pageant to compete and see who would be dubbed 'The Swan'"
– DungeonFam30
Questionably Racist
"Takeshi's Castle / MXC wasn't exactly controversial at the time, but the production of that show seems awfully exploitative by today's standards (and for the English dub, horribly stereotypical and downright racist at times). We've since watered it down severely with versions like Wipeout, but the real ones know what the lineage of shows like that is."
– plasma_dan
Ultimate Exploitation Of Privacy
"Big Brother. How about we mix the worst people with the most exploitative form of entertainment whilst also casually normalising invasion of privacy."
– JFSOCC
Just because it was family friendly didn't mean everyone approved.
Representation Matters
"Sesame Street - When this show debuted in 1969, TV channels in the southern US refused to air it because it’s racially mixed group of children playing together was too controversial."
– virago72
Beavis And Butt-Head
"Surprised I haven't seen Beavis and Butt-Head on this list yet. When it came out everyone was freaking out."
– l06ic
Swearing
"Southpark, we went from outrage at Bart saying "eat my shorts" to Cartman feeding children their parents."
"I mean swearing on TV was less prominent , then Southpark pushed that forward quickly as well, all of a sudden "A**" and "Bullsh*t" were on standard TV."
– nonaestet
Every now and then a show comes out and sends audiences clutching their pearls.
But sometimes, even an episode from a relatively tame TV show can send viewers reeling with topical moments.
Examples of this include the much-hyped same-sex kiss on Melrose Place in the 90s that was ultimately edited to imply the act and the One Tree Hill arc that explored school shootings–which was considered daring and admirable at the time for addressing a malaise that continues plaguing the US today.