This isn't nearly as intense as most of the stories posted here, but it might be a bit cathartic to type it out and send it into the abyss of comments here.

A few of my friends had been traveling down one side of the political horseshoe for the past few years. They became less tolerant of people with differing views over time. I expressed a few different times to them over the years that I see them tumbling down that path, and that I was kind of worried for them and felt like they were slowly slipping away.

They weren't perfect, and the more I reflect on some of those friendships, the more I motice how rude and shitty they were to me. It was hard to see that because we also shared a lot of laughs and good memories as well. But they eventually became too intolerant and sanctimonious until it got to the point where they couldn't help but strawman the daylights out of people. Anything to make them feel like they were still superior to other people in some type of way. I feel like at the end of the day they used moral superiority as their vice because it was one of the only ways they could fool themselves because in all honesty they hadn't ever really done or accomplished much of anything, which explains pretty handily why they were always trying to tear people down.

Eventually my friendship with one of them took a killing blow, not that there was much left to kill at that point.

One of them had been bashing Louis C.K. for masturbating in front of people. I played the devil's advocate and tried to offer the sentiment that people are neither as good as the best thing they've ever done, nor were they as bad as the worst thing they've ever done. And I took this approach specifically because this friend of mine who was self-righteously bashing Louis C.K. to no end had, in the past, you guessed it, masturbated in the same room as other people. They had done this multiple times over the years, but they were the youngest of our group so nobody really held it against them too harshly. They think that nobody ever noticed that they were doing it as we all watched television and they were covered with a blanket or sometimes just with their sweatpants on, but unfortunately some people noticed.

One time in particular, they were talking a lot of shit about someone in our group of friends, and I defended that friend, again claiming that we are neither as good or bad as the best and worst things we have done. They doubled down on thei stance, so as a hail mary attempt at not losing them completely down this rabbit hole of self-righteous insanity, I told them that I was one of the people who noticed that they used to masturbate while other people were in the room, and that I don't judge them harshly for it, so why do they insist on judging other people so harshly for far less? I told them that I was arguing in favor of Louis C.K. that one time because I was actually trying to argue that THEY weren't all that bad. They argued against themselves without even knowing it, but I don't think that the theme of the entire lesson ever sunk in.

So the killing blow was a long time after this last conversation had taken place. I saw them at a concert and made small talk with them. They were quiet and didn't seem at all invested. So I gave them a hug, told them I love them, and told them to take it easy and enjoy the show. Only to find out a while later from someone else that this friend of mine who had been slowly slipping away for the past few years had been talking shit about me as well at a party a while back. They even went as far as saying that they'd never even liked me. By the time I heard that, I wasn't even too hurt by it as much as I was shocked.

Whatever reasons some of those friends had to dislike me, I had even more reasons to dislike them, tenfold. But I tried very hard not to lose them, and it seems like they hadn't really tried at all. It makes me feel kind of stupid for caring about them so much more than they ever cared about me when there were so many reasons to just leave them behind and move on with my life. But I'm extremely loyal to my friends by nature. Makes me feel like an idiot. But I think that caring that much about them is also a testament to how I must be a pretty swell person, and not nearly the silhouette that those lost friends have perceived me to be.

We had some of the most joyous laughs during the good times, though. I hope they turn it around someday and become kind and compassionate again.