
There are always people out there who dislike you, even hate you. And if significant time has passed––let's say years––they could very well hate a version of you that no longer exists.
Self reflection is healthy. You're likely a far healthier person, certainly less toxic. We all have to come to terms with our own BS, after all. Thanks to Redditor therunawayboy, members of the online community came forward to speak candidly after being asked, "What did you do to make yourself the villain in someone else's story?"
"Told his girlfriend..."
Told his girlfriend he'd been cheating on her. He'd been bragging to me about sleeping with this girl he met while away. When I let her know the whole story, she was so grateful, but he never forgave me for it. Not a huge loss though - he wasn't the greatest person.
"When this epitome..."
My poor coworker struggled his whole life. From being kicked out of his parents house at the tender age of 32, to not being given a 5th chance at college, he was even the victim of oppression when the police took away his license after just one drunk driving car wreck (no serious injuries thank goodness).
When this epitome of innocence applied to his first job ever (also at the age of 32) his struggles only continued when he was assigned the most heartless and intentionally cruel mentor imaginable.
Many were the tortures I visited upon him, and cruel was the labour. Not only did I hold him to the impossible standard of showing up within half an hour of the workday starting, I even expected him to return to work after lunch.
Sensing his distress at such inhumane treatment my vile masters in HR soon began to close in for the kill citing company policies specifically designed to oppress. His reasonable response of throwing repeated screaming tantrums throughout the workplace and in front of customers went unheeded until he was fired for absolutely no reason at all, definitely not something about his attitude.
But justice would be his! After learning where I, his initial tormentor lived, he began writing angry letters decrying my villainy and threatened legal action for my sabotage of his career. The letters stopped shortly after for reasons unknown.
"A good friend in high school..."
I "stole" his girlfriend.
A good friend in high school dated a girl off and on that I never met. He was madly in love with her, but she wouldn't sleep with him, so he eventually cheated on her with another girl. The original girl found out, and told him that it was over forever. A couple years later, she forgave him, and they started dating again. Her junior prom was coming up, and he refused to go because of some social construct BS, so she asked a friend to go with her. That friend got into a car accident and broke his leg about a week before the prom, so he had to back out, her BF still didn't want to go, so she asked my sister if I'd be interested.
We went, had a great time together, and the next morning she broke up with that guy, and then called me to see if I wanted to catch a movie that Friday. We've been together ever since.
Over the next 5 years, he would show up at her parents house (they loved him) every time he was home from the Navy, asking if we were still together. They'd give him our address and her phone number, and he'd beg her to leave me and run away to whatever country he was stationed in at that point.
The guy hates me, to this day. Over 20 years later. Even though he's married with kids of his own, I still get the stink-eye and hear from mutual friends occasionally that he'll get drunk and b!tch about me. Apparently he left our 20 year high school reunion (I didn't go), when he was venting about us to some friends, and they defended us and told him to get the f*** over it.
I know that I'm not the villain here. Over the 5ish years that they dated he consistently lied to her, broke up with her, and even cheated on her because she wasn't ready for sex, but man does he hate me for "stealing" the first person he ever loved.
"I come back from vacation..."
So me and my boss were at odds. The TL;DR of that was she was a compulsive liar and rageaholic, and I was getting sick of her sh!t. She wanted desperately to be rid of me, but she didn't have the authority to fire me.
I come back from vacation, and there's a new guy in the office. I ask the boss who the new guy is, and she gives me a smug grin and says, "That's your replacement. As soon as you have trained to my satisfaction, you're done." I roll my eyes and start training him. But, we really start warming up to each other, and start bonding over nerd stuff. "Wow, the boss keeps describing you as the spawn of Satan, but you're actually a pretty cool guy!" he told me as we were working late one night.
About a month later, I come back from a job in the field, and find new guy has been fired. "Abusing office furniture" is the official reason, but by all accounts, all he did was drag a couple extra chairs into the conference room for a staff meeting. That night at home, new guy calls me, and lays it all on the line. He was the boss's boyfriend. She had promised him my job, but she couldn't fire me and hire him instead. So their Machiavellian scheme was to hire him in a smaller position, have me train him, drive me to quit, and then just promote him into my job. And that the real reason he was fired was because they just broke up. I tell him he really shouldn't be telling me this...he should be telling human resources.
An internal investigation is launched. Since "sleep with me and I'll give you a job" is the textbook definition of sexual harassment, boss is fired for sexual harassment. New guy is rehired, but his new duties are so limited, he quits after a couple of weeks. Boss gets a new job managing a bar down the street from the office, and will tell anybody from the office who comes in that I got her fired, simply by not quitting like I was supposed to.
"He was laughing at me..."
I had a long distance relationship I ghosted when I was maybe 20. One time when I was visiting he had a bunch of friends over for pizza. They were all into online gaming and started talking about gamer chicks and women in general. Really sexist, degrading stuff. One of the friends saw my face and said "watch out bf looks like your old lady is getting her little feelings hurt." I looked over at my bf, who had been laughing along the whole time, to see that he'd poured the garlic dipping sauce all over his pizza. His entire chin was glistening, dripping with grease. He was laughing at me and his mouth was full of chewed up pizza with cheese mashed all in his teeth. I was so repulsed I left that night and ignored all his calls, emails, and texts. He begged me to tell him what happened but I was young and immature and just ignored him completely until he stopped reaching out eventually. I literally never said another word to him.
"After her week was up..."
I was the co-manager of a restaurant. Employee A and Employee B had huge personalities. Employee B was the assistant manager, while employee A had aspirations to become assistant manager. The other co-manager gave employee A some menial tasks (keeping the refrigeration units at temperature, checking them daily, labeling products for FIFO). Employee A allowed these responsibilities go directly to her head, and she was now also tattling on every employee to the other co-manager.
This went on for a while, and employee A began tattling on employee B for any mistakes she made. This causes employee B and employee A to get in a verbal fight. Employee A immediately came to me and demanded I demote or fire employee B. I refused to give her an answer, and she immediately made a scene in front of customers where she screamed, threw herself on the floor and started crying screaming she quits, and she threw her hat at the cash register.
After this incident, the co-manager and I decided to let her handle it. She gave employee A a week off and time to think about whether she wanted to quit or not.
During her week off, she'd stop by daily and badmouth me and employee B within earshot, and complain how terrible the company is, and how she's probably not even going to come back.
After her week was up, she decided to quit. I blocked her from social media, and went on with life.
Years later I saw her at a restaurant and she tried talking to me as if the incident never happened. I was fairly cold and dismissed myself to the restroom within a minute or so of talking. I have not seen her since.
"She wanted me to cover for her..."
Told my best friend's parents she was sneaking off on an out of town trip with a guy she met roughly 2 months prior when we were in high school. She wanted me to cover for her claiming she's going on a mini vacay with my family but I got bad vibes from the dude and texted her mom telling her I was worried about (friend name). She was pissed. Claimed I was just jealous that a guy was actually interested in her. Never spoke to her again until like senior year of college. The dude? He was arrested for assault with a weapon while on some cocktail of drugs... half naked.
"I understand how things can be done..."
Ended the friendship cause she was quite toxic. You know, the usual you can't have any friends, mental abuse, I'm going to hurt myself if you leave, kinda friend. She went back to the people she often told me she hated and put together a web of lies of how I did all the above listed stuff to her. I'm now the villain to a whole group of people I used to be friends with because I never had the guts to tell them what was happening between us while it was happening. You know, because I hate gossip and i didn't feel like i was worth the worry through all that abuse.
I understand how things can be done by accident and can be seen differently by others.. but I did nothing but kind things for that girl. While she called me nasty horrible things, I was soothing her, calming her, seeing her in person to make sure she was okay. I don't know how on earth it wasn't a choice for her to lie about me.
"We arrived..."
New neighbors moved in down the street with young kids the same age as our kids. Everyone else on our street has no kids so we were excited. Neighbors' wife (let's call her Karen) invites us over one night to meet them and their kids.
We arrived at 6pm and Karen told us her husband will be home "soon." As the hours went by Karen kept leaving the room to call her husband and would reassure us he will be home "soon" and we should stay.
Karen's husband comes home at 10pm. All of our kids are crying from exhaustion and when I finally meet the guy he shakes my hand with a death stare and leaves the room. I can hear him and Karen arguing loudly about how rude we are to stay that late. We even think Karen blamed it on us.
Upon hearing the argument, my wife and I noped out of there carrying our crying kids. We apologized to Karen's husband on the way out. I got tricked into being the villain.
"The worst part..."
I changed schools when I was pretty young. There was one guy who immediately didn't like me for whatever reason, and made it his personal crusade to get everyone to feel the same way. Honestly, I think it's because I was usually just spacing out wanting to go home and I didn't really want to socialize with this person.
About halfway through the school year he starts really messing with me. Kicking my chair out from under me when I try to sit down, throwing sh!t at me, and tearing down everything I would say. I'd brought this up to our teacher about 900 times and snapped when I found my backpack was full of glue. I just stood up mid class and beat the crap out of him until I was pulled out of class and sent to the principal.
Literally no one cared about my side of the story. I had bruises from falling, a cut from a pair of scissors that was thrown at me, and my brand new walkman was full of glue. All just from that day. So because I gave this kid a black eye I was basically branded an ahole with an anger issue until I changed schools again.
The worst part was, a couple days later our teacher made us shake hands and the kid said "I'm sorry for whatever I did. I just wanted to be friends." I almost decked him again in the same eye as before.
It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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