
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.
Everyone has their travel bucket list.
The list of places they absolutely must visit before they die.
There are those, however, who also have a rather different list of destinations.
The places that have no intention to visit.
Be it for safety concerns, language barriers, or simply that there's nothing at these places that calls to them, there are places some wouldn’t dream of spending the time and money to visit.
Redditor TrooperJohn was curious to hear which places were at the very bottom of the list of travel destinations for his fellow Redditors, leading them to ask:
"What is a popular tourist destination you have no interest in visiting?"
Oasis in the desert? No thank you.
"Dubai."
"Why and whats special about it?"
"Its a modern city in a desert."- Maximum_Calendar_791.
"Dubai."
"A fake city with fake people, no human rights, where the world's tallest buildings hide corruption and slavery in their shadows."
"It's like someone decided to take every problem of mankind and concentrate it in one spot."- PayNoNoticeOfMe.
"Dubai one i think it is ugly two I would die in two minutes of me being there I can't stand anything above 40 c°."- BookWormPerson.
One of the seven wonders is one too many for me.
"The pyramids. "
"Too many horror stories of Egypt."- Aemiom.
Landlocked.
"Not really a destination, but taking a cruise."- Shortbus_Playboy.
Mountains aren't really my thing.
"Everest."
"Just why."
"You use a bunch of money to get in there them come down."
"And trash your whole way there. It's literally a corner in the Earth insufferable for humans and we still made a way to go there to trash it."- ACLullaby.
It's in my own backyard... but still not interested.
"I have lived about 15km away from the Burj Khalifa ever since it was made."
"I could not care any less besides the occasional pointing out the 'shiny tall building' to my nieces.- legolosss.
The pictures are enough for me.
"Mount Rushmore."
"Friends who've made the journey to Mount Rushmore mostly say it was no big deal and not worth the effort or expense to travel there."- Back2Bach.
Hustle and Bustle? No thanks.
"Anything busy.'
"Whether it's cities, structures, I don't care."
"I'd rather go to a boring empty quiet place than a place full of people."- TheSmeep.
They're watching us.
"That creepy a** place in Japan with all the realistic dolls."
"No thank you."
Some dream of paying a visit to these places.
Others hope they never have to set foot there, and will choose to leave it to the other millions of tourists.
To each, their own.
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When it comes to electing a leader, the choice is an easy one if a potential candidate shares the same values as yours.
And while a candidate is fit to lead remains to be seen, we rely on our instinct to choose someone with whom we can relate.
But sometimes, our options are limited and we inevitably go with someone who is the lesser of two evils.
Curious to hear from strangers online about a hypothetical, Redditor Cashmeresquid2309 asked:
"Americans of Reddit, would you vote for an openly Atheist presidential candidate? Why or why not?"

Redditors were quick to point out the answer was a no-brainer.
We Already Know The Answer
"Asking Reddit if they'd vote for an atheist..."
"I feel like the answer would be obvious."
– sarahmagoo
Sci-Fi Analogy
"Americans of Reddit, would you vote for a Star Wars fan who heckin loves doggos?"
– WitnessChemical
For The Atheists In The Crowd
"Atheists of atheistville, would you vote for an open atheist?"
– nixcamic
Others weighed in with a range of opinions.
About 45
"What's funny is how many of them would probably say no, even though they voted for Trump and would do so again. Say whatever else you want about him, but I seriously can't understand how anyone could genuinely believe Trump is a Christian. He's so obviously faking it and is undoubtedly the most atheistic president we've ever had or are likely to have for a long time."
"This is a guy who's never even so much as read the Bible or attended church, who told a conservative radio host his favorite Bible verse was 'an eye for an eye', who told evangelical interviewers that he's never asked God for forgiveness because he's never done anything wrong, and who routinely commits all 7 deadly sins (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth) without remorse."
– empfindsamkeit
From A Different Perspective
"Not an american but interestingly according to this survey on 1006 people from 2007, being atheist was the worst thing you could be as a candidate (of the things asked) with only 45 % of people saying they'd vote for one."
– ilovecatfish
An atheist candidate isn't necessarily a big strike.
Double Negative
"I wouldn’t not vote for someone just because they were atheist."
– HabitualEnthusiast
Credibility First
"This is it. If they’re running on platforms I support with a history to back up those campaign promises, I don’t care if they belong to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. They could literally be a member of the satanic temple and I, an actual practicing Christian, would give less shi*s than a constipated sloth."
"Edit: yes, I realize the Satanic Temple does not actually worship satan. I used it for that purpose. The Church of Satan has some…problematic views and I probably would not vote for someone who literally holds a platform of eugenics."
– Phoenix_of_Asclepius
Some view the role of religion in politics as important.
It Depends
"Religion can be relevant: I would have strong reservations about voting for a Scientologist, even if I agreed with the policies they proposed. I would have strong reservations voting for a member of an apocalyptic cult or, possibly worse, a follower of the (highly heretical) 'prosperity gospel,' which unfortunately includes more and more so-called 'evangelicals' — I didn't vote for George W. Bush, but it's not because he was an evangelical."
"It depends on the role: I'd probably be more flexible with a legislator than an executive (mayor, governor, president), as their character is IMO more important than for a legislator and their policy stances somewhat less important relative to a legislator."
"Satanic temple — well, that's just an organized group of atheists and humanists with an intentionally inflammatory choice of name. They're generally fine people."
– alyssasaccount
A Bad Rap
"The Satanic Temple is an excellent organization that every decent person should be able to respect. A Church of Satan member, not so much."
"There's a huge difference between them!"
– StarsEatArtBooks
And Redditor boganvegan said it best.
"Better an open atheist than a fake Christian."
It all boils down to trustworthiness. Without full transparency, how could anyone put their faith in a candidate who spews nothing but lies?
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Being home alone isn't always the most tranquil thing.
No one is there to help or protect you.
And things that go "bump" in the night... sometimes they do more than bump.
Redditor ag9910 wanted to hear about the times home felt like an unsafe place to be. They asked:
"What is the scariest, strangest, most unexplainable thing that has happened to you while home alone?"
I'm always freaked out when I'm home alone. Lights on. Yeah, my electric bill is high.
Dorothy?
"I dreamed the front door blew open at the exact time the house alarm went off... I hopped up and sure enough, the front door was open. No intruder."
fatowl
I See You
"Not home alone but only one in right side of the house. Went to my mom's bathroom to wash my hands and saw a pair of feet behind the half open door. Laughed and said 'very funny Ma, I see you.' then finished up and left. Bumped into my mother in the kitchen unpacking, nobody else was in the house. I'm glad whatever was behind the door didn't peek out."
SatanWithFur
“It’s Doug!”
"One night I had forgotten to lock my apartment door and woke up in the middle of the night. My bedroom door was about 2 feet from my front door, as you walked into the apartment. First a big dog ran by, then a person. Holy crap I was so scared and I screeched 'Who is it?!?!!'"
"A man said 'It’s Doug!' As I was thinking to myself, who the f**k is Doug, he said 'oh, crap.' He turned around to go back out the front door saying 'Sorry.' I asked 'Didn’t you have a dog with you?' He said 'Oh, yeah. Hey, c’mon!.' He left, his dog ran out after him and I locked my front door."
"Edit: glad you all thought this was funny, because I did too, once my heart quit trying to beat right out of my chest! The next day the girls at work thought I was crazy for not being upset, but eh, done is done. Peace!"
scarletohairy
Confused...
"My sister and I were home alone and we heard someone big running up the stairs. The stairs make lots of noise with slight pressure so when there’s someone big on them you can tell. I went out of my room to check but saw no one anywhere and my sister also came out of her room and she asked if that was me I said no and we both looked around to see if there was anyone but found no one in the whole house. We were confused and called our parents and just waited until they got back and that was that."
JtSudbury04
I See You
"I very clearly saw a guy walk into my room. But when I went after him there was nobody there. I checked in the closet, under my bed, everywhere one could hide in my room."
HighlyOffensive10
This is why home video surveillance is key.
"NO"
"My parents were on a road trip, just left, and I sat down at my desk. I thought 'Weekend alone by myself' and a voice yelled into my right ear 'NO' so loud it hurt."
Th4ab
Wild
"I managed to lock myself out of my house on my birthday during a tornado while trying to bring my cats to the basement for safety. I later found out that the tornado was approximately a couple miles or less from me at that exact time. The sky was green and it got weirdly calm and then I could hear what sounded like a train coming before I found an unlocked window to climb through. Wild times."
SilverGnarwhal
Saturday morning in the 80s...
"I wasn't home alone but I was awake by myself one Saturday morning in the 80s when I was around 7 or so. I believe my mom was the only one home because my dad went to the lake to go fishing that weekend, and I'm not sure where my older brothers were, maybe they went with him, idk."
"Anyways, my mom's sleeping in, and I'm in the living room by myself, watching Saturday morning cartoons and making a fort out of sheets and cushions. Something made me turn around and I saw my dad in his pajamas standing in the hallway entrance with his hands on his hips, looking the mess I was making and shaking his head."
"He then turned around and walked into my room, which was just off the hallway entrance. Dude. I didn't even look, I just booked it to my parents room and woke my mom up. I don't remember what happened after that, this was around 35 years ago. And yes, my dad was fine, nothing had happened to him."
smriversong
Get the Bat...
"I was at home by myself on a call with some friends when all of a sudden my dog begins to bark like crazy, which was odd since it was the middle of the night and he's usually sleep. I go downstairs to check on him and find him barking at our hall closet, terrified I grabbed my bat that I keep in my room just in case and open the door. There was nothing out of usual at first at then I look down and notice a familiar looking object at the bottom of the closet."
"It was my mom's necklace she had lost when I was 9, (i'm 15 now just to put in perspective how long it's been). I showed it to my mom at breakfast and she was just as shocked as I was. I still have no clue how it got there or how my dog knew it was in there, definitely one of the oddest occurrences of my life."
SomeRandomIdiot14
Meow
"Many years ago, I was 14 or so, my first night alone in the house when my parents were out. Lying on the living room floor reading, my cat sleeping next to me."
"Suddenly, cat wakes up, stares intently into the dark corner of the room behind me, hair on end, growls and then bolts out of the room and upstairs. I look behind me and see nothing, but follow cat upstairs and hide under the covers. Freaked me out."
LairdofWingHaven
Thank God for alarms. I hate being home alone.
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The human body is still such a mystery.
How much do we really know?
Not a lot apparently. We're learning more all the time.
And most of it is gross.
Redditor BathNo7713 wanted to discuss the ick factor of anatomy. So they asked:
"What is the most disturbing fact about the human body?"
The body freaks me out. But it's all I've got. So teach me some things.
Minutes...
"The fastest killing virus takes around 4 days to kill you. That would be Ebola. Your immune system can kill you in 15 minutes."
will477
'locked-in'
"If your brainstem (the part of the brain that mediates most motor control for all of the body) is damaged, you can get 'locked-in' syndrome. That means you're fully conscious and aware of your surroundings but unable to move or speak. The only muscles that remain unaffected in most people are the muscles that move they eyes and the eyelids."
"You're essentially trapped within your own body with your only way of communication being blinking or moving your eyes It can be caused by toxins, blockage of the basilar artery which is the main artery of the brainstem, or other brainstem damage."
4oodler
Explosions
"Some people suffer from Exploding Head Syndrome, which causes them to hear a loud bang when they wake up."
ToraMix19
"When I was younger I believe I experienced this a few times. Sounds I heard were: about a million people talking and laughing all at once, a train that irl would've been about a foot away from me based on the volume of the sound, and a door slamming loudly."
aliaisacreature
Pain
"Not sure if this is by design, but I totaled my car once, almost completely uninjured somehow. Then I looked down to my right hand which I remember jabbing into my dashboard at 55mph. Luckily (unluckily?) only my pinky took the blow. But instead of a floppy-udder full of bone-sand, my pinky was 0.5 inches long."
"Broke no bones, but instead perfectly stacked my phalanges, or finger bones, INTO my hand. This is fixed by a muscular Russian murse grabbing your pinky with both hands and pulling very hard. God I wish they gave me more lidocaine."
TelevisionOlympics
Functions
"If you have a surgery where they need to move your organs around they might not function for a day as the body assumes that they are dead."
tonythebutcher13
Move things around? You mean that's not fake when it happens on "Grey's Anatomy?"
"The only reason you are not aware of it is because the ambient noise kind of drowns it out because your ears focus on it. If you go to one of those super-silent rooms that absorb all sorts of sounds, it is a really weird way to reacquaint yourself with your body."
Black_Handkerchief
The Mouth
"Idk about the most disturbing but how bad human teeth are. We’d think it’s our sugary and processed diets these days that cause it, but even Otzi the iceman discovered in Italy was found to have terrible teeth, mouth diseases and cavities. It’s odd that even with the most basic of diets our teeth are so bad."
Dorianisconfused
In the bowels...
"I noticed this after my abdominal surgery. When I turned over in bed my guts seemed to fall from one side to the other. Mentioned to my doc and she confirmed it was my bowels rearranging themselves."
squatter_
"Apparently the doctor just throws your intestines back in there higgeldy-piggeldy because there isn't a correct way to pack them neatly."
LostDesigner9
A Quick Burst
"There are a vast number of ways that your body can malfunction and kill you with little or no warning. An aneurysm can go undetected until it bursts and kills you. Getting hit in the chest just the right way can stop your heart. You can encounter an allergen that never previously provoked an immune response that freaks out your body so badly that you die. You literally just never know if your body will just... die."
Unsolicited_Spiders
The body is such a conundrum. Sexy and gross all at once.
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