Good friendships are hard to come by.
Have you ever scrolled through your Facebook feed and really looked at who your "friends were?" Do they all deserve that distinction over being called acquaintances?
While it's perfectly fine to add whomever you want to your friends list on your multiple social media platforms, it is interesting to think about which one of them would go the extra mile for you and have your back.
Strangers online revealed they found out the hard way who their so-called friends were when Redditor mediastoosocial asked:
"What's the sh*ttiest way a friend has shown you they weren't really your friend?"
Silent Treatment
These Redditors were ignored by people who were too cowardly to have honest conversations.
Death Of A Friendship
"Ghosted me after 20+ years of friendship. He was my best friend for as long as I can remember but at some point he just stopped saying yes when I suggested getting together. We could have a conversation about anything but the second I brought up doing something it was radio silence. He finally agreed to something then blew me off like an hour beforehand. No raincheck or suggestion we try again. I was depressed for days but that was the day I gave up."
"He was the best man at my wedding. I loved him like a brother and still hope he's doing well and happy. But the rejection hurts so much that I just don't try anymore. I've mourned the death of our relationship and am done with it. And I still don't know why."
You're On Your Own
"After 25 years of friendship...I announced to my best friend that I was moving to the city she was in. I had a great job opportunity and felt like it was an awesome time to make a big life change. I was so excited to tell her, I could hardly wait. She flatly replied with, 'cool'...and when I asked her what parts of town I should look at to live she stated 'I can't help you, you should just figure it out when you get here'. We never had a fight, had been close for our entire adult lives and I had continually helped her in all aspects of her life without hesitation. To this day, I cannot tell you why she started treating me this way. Long story short, we live in the same city and haven't seen each other in 6 years. And I'm quite sure we live minutes away from each other. I will prob never know what happened."
Repeat Offender
"I gave her a birthday present and she just said she didn't like it and found it in the thrash when I visited."
"She would always be late to everything."
"She got tickets to an Incubus concert and a meet and greet, it wasn't in our city so I saved all of my money to be able to afford the trip and a week before she texted me saying she was going to Disneyland so she sold the tickets."
"I painted a whole big beautiful mural in her room and two months later just painted over it with purple cause she got bored."
"Invited me for coffee and I got really excited because I hadn't seen her for a while and had a lot going on, I was almost homeless at the time so I took the little money I had to pay for my coffee, I got there and it was a MLM with like six other people (just as disappointed as me)."
"Then she did it again, I don't know why I thought it would be different, that's the last time I saw her."
– Kovvacs
The Worthy Replacement
"I had 12 hours before I deployed to Afghanistan. I lived about 6 hours from my point of departure (airport from which I would fly into theater) and my friend/ex-girlfriend had committed to driving me there on that day. Packed, dressed, goodbyes said, I take an Uber to her house with all my gear and baggage ready to go. I knock on the door and she answers in her robe. I ask her if she was about ready and she proceeds to tell me that she forgot (after we had talked 2 days prior) and that she really wasn't feeling like driving that distance. Utterly shocked and confused, I explain to her that if I miss my flight, it's considered a 'failure to report for duty' and I could be considered a deserter or AWOL.
Heavy consequences for it either way. She told me to figure it out and closed the door. At that point I had no idea what to do so I called my first sergeant. We worked in a very remote location and he was the closest person to me at that point. That man drove the 3 hours from his home to get me and then the other 6 hours to the airport. Bought me dinner and got me tipsy before I had to get on my flight. I had the stunning realization that day that you really can't trust anyone, but I gained a lifelong friend as a result. We still talk regularly 'til this day!"
Ditched On Graduation
"They all bailed on my college graduation and graduation party. And then accidentally included me on an email thread about all of them coming up with different excuses for missing my big day. It made me feel incredibly alone and I had no idea that they viewed me in such a negative light. As an adult I realize they were jealous...but back then, just assumed I had a major character flaw and started isolating myself from people."
Reddit Users Share Their Best 'It's A Small World After All' Experience
Deceptions
Lies and infidelity are not what define friendships.
After The Affair
"My best friend got with my first husband while I was pregnant, helped destroy our marriage, supported him so he could quit his job and avoid paying child support, joined him in abusing my kids while they were with him, and then tried to cry on my shoulder when he ended up screwing her over when they split after 14 years of jointly making my life a living hell."
When Lending A Hand Backfires
"Let a guy stay on the couch in my one-bedroom apartment so he wouldn't be living in his car. A few weeks later, he was sleeping with my girlfriend. I found out and kicked them both to the curb. 6 or 8 months later he calls me out of the blue and apologizes, then tells me she cheated on him and asks if he can move back in! Gave him a hard no and hung up on him. Last I heard from or of him."
Abandoned
"Promised to invite me to a group outing, only to text me one day out of the blue that they already left and 'oh well.' From mutual friends who went on the outing, they told me that this friend never told them that I was invited."
– Ahstia
Unnecessary Lie
"In 8th grade, after I switched schools, a friend of mine called me one night and told me a kid I wanted to be friends with killed himself. 3 months later I visit their graduation ceremony and find out he lied to me and that the kid was still alive."
Getting Beat Up
These Redditors recalled being involved in physical altercations.
Unpleasant Surprise
"Long time ago, but my tenth birthday party. The first time I'd actually tried to have a big group, it was around thirty kids at a park with a t-ball set up, normal picnic stuff, the like. My best friend at the time said he had a surprise for me in one of the fenced walkways leading to the park, where he sucker punched me and his other friend and he took turns jumping on and kicking me. After a few minutes another kid from the party saw, ran them off, and took me back to my ma away from the other kids so I didn't have to be too embarrassed."
The Confrontation
"My best friend since middle school got me knocked unconscious after starting a confrontation with a large group of guys. Proceeded to tell everyone we worked with that I had started it. Few weeks later I had returned from a holiday to my home country and he had moved one of his friends into my room at the place we were renting. Never talked to him again."
The Big Push
"This guy pushed me into the ground for no reason mid-sentence when he knew I was still injured from a car accident (which he knew I was hospitalized for). He then immediately turned his back and walked away without a word. I was too shocked to say anything immediately and he was gone. I wasn't saying anything bad or mean to him either, it was something casual akin to the weather. After that I had to slowly and carefully get up front my crouching position by myself and sat myself on a nearby fence to gather myself... When I later confronted him about it, he got super defensive saying it was just a light shove and a prank :/
Super not okay, I had to strain my back muscles really uncomfortably just so I wouldn't hit the ground and I don't think anyone should live in constant fear that their 'friend'" might at any minute risk paralyzing them for life just to get a cheap laugh.
"This same guy also kept parroting something my abuser said which I told the group in confidence. I told him to stop but he said he wouldn't and that I was being too 'PC' as if my personal story is something to be politically correct about???? I trust some people less now. No one seemed to care or stand up for me or anything and I felt utterly alone..."
"I do not talk to this guy anymore..."
The Potential Murderer
"They tried to drown me."
"For proper context we were doing a swim class in school, I did talk to a few teachers and the principal but none of them did anything so I at the time just figured nothing would come out of it if I kept on trying, though I do wish I did get something done about it legally."
– Saellios
Many of the Redditors in the thread expressed disappointment after someone whom they thought was a friend inexplicably ignored them.
People change and friendships evolve over time; however, that is no reason to deny a person of any sort of communication if one reaches out to the other.
Moving on from friendships happens, and it's fine.
It would be wise not to gain an enemy by disrespecting someone with whom you used to call a friend.
But eventually, we need to face the facts, and these Redditors are ready to deliver the harsh truths about what it means to be human. SomeWillingness2960 asked:
What is the truth humanity is not ready to hear?
Let’s start with a few of the light ones, before we dive deep in what we’ve been overdue to hear.
Starting off with a very controversial one.
“The air in chip bags is important.”
“They replace the air (which contains oxygen and water vapour) with nitrogen so the chips don't get soggy or oxidise.”
“And they "over inflate" the bags on purpose to cushion the chips from crumbling during packing / transport.”
A universal work struggle.
season 8 episode 23 GIFGiphy“No matter where you work, or what you do for a living, there will always be That Person that nobody can figure out how they got hired, never mind why they are allowed to continue working there.”
“I remember seeing a post on Reddit that seems to answer it. It basically says that to keep most jobs you just need to tick two out of three of the following attributes(I might have misremembered 1)
- You actually show up on time
- Your work is
good/up to standardis not the worst and passable - Your colleagues and bosses
like youdon't hate you the most out of your colleagues
Edit. Adding 4 and 5 based on below discussions which can supercede the above 3 while also ammending the above three slightly
4. It's more difficult to kick you out than to keep you
5. You have some control over those in charge (some kind of relation, having some kind of incriminating evidence, etc)”
What is “normal”, anyway?
“We will never have a good sense of the world's "normal."
News won't focus on it, because it's boring by definition. Social media won't focus on it for the same reason. Word of mouth and fiction too. Statistics may get us close, but they're hard to picture in terms if human experience, and of course, more exciting stats get repeated more.
Our view of the world outside of our own personal experience will always be shaped by the outliers, and there's not much way around it.”
Ok, now it’s time to dive deeper. Prepare yourselves.
This one hurts.
“Most people simply don't care about the things you're passionate about no matter how much you try to convince them that they should be.”
“As I've gotten older I've had to learn that my friends don't find joy in the same things I do. It's nothing personal.”
I’ll never understand this.
Mermaid Man And Barnacle Boy Superhero GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy“Much evil not only goes unpunished but is rewarded.”
“Not only that but a lot of evil behaviour is rewarding itself for many people.”
Unfortunate truth.
“The loudest among you are mostly a bunch of wankers. Unfortunately you usually let them lead you.”
“A big part of that is because they tell us what we want to hear.
You ever hear a politician go "We're going to have open borders, lower corporate tax rate, higher sales tax, reduced prison sentences, laws forbidding employers from looking into if they're hiring a criminal, a ban on beef, and we're doing it all because that is what the experts say we should do and I have a giant book of sources on that"? No, because even though that's very much what experts advise, it's not at all what people want to hear.
So instead, when you hear someone going "Don't listen to that guy, what we really need is better border control, huge taxes on corporations, no taxes on the poor, criminals get treated like the scum they are, and corporations are the main ones behind climate change, and don't ask me for sources", you're still much more likely to support him. Because when you want to believe them, they're so much easier to believe.”
Those would be some very smart monkeys.
“There's a good chance that humans simply don't have the capacity to fully understand the universe.
A monkey will never be able to comprehend calculus, macroeconomic theory, or how a car works. It makes sense that we too have an intellectual ceiling that will prevent us from ever understanding how the universe works.”
Ready to face the music? Keep reading.
Oof.
Giphy“Humanity is the largest threat to itself. Not some natural disaster or outside invasion. We will kill ourselves off at this rate.”
“Yes. It's sad that the most successful and intelligent species in the solar system is most likely going to cause its own downfall.”
Same.
“For most people the last thing left of them will be an eroded name on a headstone.”
“I want to be one of those taxidermied drones.”
Username checks out.
“Are you special? Maybe a little bit. Are you as special as you think you are? Certainly not.”
“We are all the same decaying organic matter.”
Well, I hope y’all aren’t too messed up from reading that. Especially that first one about the chip bags. How dare they.
But in all seriousness, just do your part to make our world a better place. That’s all we can do.
Most of us would be content making sure our family and friends were set for life and bettering the world the best we can.
Redditor ApArAmY wanted to hear what everyone else dreamed of doing if they had no limit on funds.
“What is the first thing you would buy if you had infinite money?"
Dreaming of affordable health care? Must be from the US...
“Every single medical provider facility in the world. Make healthcare free for patients. Since I have unlimited money, I can afford whatever drug/device/material/salary/etc that would treat patients.”
“Then everyone can get on with living life knowing that they'll get good medicine and not be saddled with high costs. And taxes could go down because governments wouldn't have to pay for healthcare.” Specialist-Ad475
20 trillion, no big deal...
“I'd fund all efforts to further the fight against climate change, global warming, pollution, etc. I'd probably try not to spend that much money for a while so as to prevent inflation, but adding ~20 trillion dollars to the global economy wouldn't be that bad, right?” PixelGMS
The orange one wouldn't like this idea...
“I'd buy Mar a Lago, make it into a homeless shelter and install wind power turbines on all 18 holes." Mr-Warmth
Someone come get their dad!
“A new butt, my old one has a crack in it!" drewdwagy1966
seth meyers dabbing GIF by Late Night with Seth MeyersGiphyHuman rights and green energy...
“Buy Amazon, Nestle, and as many $1billion+ corporations as I can. Once I'm CEO, I would stop every human rights violation they cause and give all the profits (since i have infinite money I won't need it) to charities and funding to green energy and stopping climate change." crispier_cream
So pure...
“It sounds silly, but an ice cream sandwich. Several years ago, I was living paycheck to paycheck and had a fair amount of credit card debt. I fell behind in my mortgage and lost my home to foreclosure. Shortly after I was notified, I drove over to a 7-11, bought an ice cream sandwich, and ate it while crying in my car.”
“Unfortunately, every time I eat an ice cream sandwich, it's still a bittersweet feeling. I always think of the day my favorite childhood comfort food became forever intertwined with my sense of complete and utter failure. After coming into life-changing money, I would hope that an ice cream sandwich would taste as good again as it did when I was a kid.” Steve-in-rewrite
“Just….. a huge chunk of land.”
“Land. Just….. a huge chunk of land. Build a house for my parents, one for us, and one for my In-Laws, and another small house for the family to stay at when they come to visit. Maybe two. We got a big family. And then just spend my time building my farm." Unusual_Amphibian_20
Just make sure to funnel it through a PAC first...
“A US Senator! Or several of 'em. I've always wanted my own senator.” a_dangerous_noodle
Susan Collins Thank You GIF by Election 2020GiphyThe who’s got a bigger one game...
“Judging by the world we live in, apparently I'd enter into the private space race.” Cool-breeze7
Back to the bartering system perhaps?
“I would distribute it all evenly so that it's literally worthless. I would expect this to collapse the economy but what do i know, I'm not an economist.” Jham_jam
It seems like mostly these Redditors want to help others and the planet. Although for that one person, may all your ice cream sandwiches be delightful.
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