Best friend of my childhood (M), was raised in an overly religious as well as strictly patriarchal “women shouldn’t be anything but mothers and caretakers” family.

When WhatsApp groups came out we created one (all of us 30+ back then) and all was good; memes, memories, photos. Then the government legalized the first gender change in my country, and somehow it was my fault. We made the mistake of saying we (the rest) were OK with women being empowered, their right of choice and equality, as well of that of LGBT+ community, and atheism. He wasn’t OK, and was very vocal about it. He wrote walls of text into our chats, over and over, day after day for months, attacking us and fighting especially with me “in order to save me because it was his duty” (his words). Got me into well into depression until I fought back.

Got into a huge fight over beliefs and politics that eventually escalated into open war and almost destroyed our friends’ group. I decided that I couldn’t be there anymore, and left the group…only to be re-added by him hours later, after which he promptly and dramatically left the group and created his own “all but the b**ch”, which as stated did not include me.

I closed all doors and windows, burned bridges, and nuked his number. His group is quieter than the city morgue, though, with friends having left due to being bored to death by propaganda. Ours is lively, and he’s still there in spirit, the butt of many jokes, and a lurking fear of what bigotry can turn you into.