Arzenic
King of the dim-lit roads
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2025
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This story has been eating at me for a while. I don’t know who needs to hear it, but maybe if you’re noticing your friend changing in ways that feel off… say something. I didn’t. And I still wonder if I could’ve changed what happened.
Let me start from the beginning.
I (27M) had a friend — let’s call him Chris. We’d known each other since high school. He was always a little awkward with girls, but funny, smart, and honestly a good guy. He had a string of rejections in college that hit him hard, and after his last one — a girl he really liked started dating a “Chad” (his word, not mine) — something in him shifted.
At first, it was just cynical jokes. Stuff like:
Then one night, we were drinking at his place, and he left his laptop open when he went to the bathroom. I wasn’t snooping — I swear — but a tab caught my eye. It was a forum thread titled something like:
Dozens of posts by him — I recognized his writing style — talking about how “foids” (their word for women) were “parasites,” posting revenge fantasies, saying things like:
I felt sick. I didn’t say anything that night. I should’ve. But I didn’t know how.
Things escalated from there.
He started treating women in real life differently. Not in obvious, cartoonishly evil ways — but subtly. Cold. Dismissive. I saw him go out of his way to ignore female coworkers. He’d talk over women in conversations, roll his eyes when they spoke. He’d smirk at waitresses like they were beneath him.
One time, he matched with a girl on a dating app and went on a date. The next day he told me:
Eventually I confronted him. I told him I saw the forum. That it was dangerous, hateful, insane. His face went blank. Then he smiled — smiled — and said:
I blocked him on everything. A few months later, I heard through a mutual that he was fired from his job for “inappropriate behavior” toward a female coworker. No one said what exactly happened.
Sometimes I wonder if he’s still on those forums. Still spiraling. Still feeding the fire. Other times I wonder if he’ll snap — if he’ll go from words to something worse. And I wonder… if I had said something earlier — really said something, or gotten help — would it have made a difference?
I’ll never know.
TL;DR: My longtime friend slowly fell into incel ideology. I discovered his disturbing posts filled with misogyny and gore. He started treating women terribly in real life, and I cut contact. I still feel guilty for not intervening earlier.
Anyways if you enjoyed this chatgbt story, remember to rep and follow!
Let me start from the beginning.
I (27M) had a friend — let’s call him Chris. We’d known each other since high school. He was always a little awkward with girls, but funny, smart, and honestly a good guy. He had a string of rejections in college that hit him hard, and after his last one — a girl he really liked started dating a “Chad” (his word, not mine) — something in him shifted.
At first, it was just cynical jokes. Stuff like:
I’d laugh it off, thinking he was just venting. But the bitterness grew. He started going on rants about how dating was “rigged,” how women “only want status and height,” and how the world was against “average guys.” I told him to chill, that it wasn’t healthy to think like that — but he brushed it off as me being naive.
Then one night, we were drinking at his place, and he left his laptop open when he went to the bathroom. I wasn’t snooping — I swear — but a tab caught my eye. It was a forum thread titled something like:
I clicked. What I saw made my stomach drop.
Dozens of posts by him — I recognized his writing style — talking about how “foids” (their word for women) were “parasites,” posting revenge fantasies, saying things like:
There were gore images. Real ones. Stuff I won’t describe. Some were labeled with disgusting captions — mock executions, violence against women, all cheered on by other users. Chris had commented on many of them. Positively.
I felt sick. I didn’t say anything that night. I should’ve. But I didn’t know how.
Things escalated from there.
He started treating women in real life differently. Not in obvious, cartoonishly evil ways — but subtly. Cold. Dismissive. I saw him go out of his way to ignore female coworkers. He’d talk over women in conversations, roll his eyes when they spoke. He’d smirk at waitresses like they were beneath him.
One time, he matched with a girl on a dating app and went on a date. The next day he told me:
He was proud of it.
Eventually I confronted him. I told him I saw the forum. That it was dangerous, hateful, insane. His face went blank. Then he smiled — smiled — and said:
That was the last time we spoke.
I blocked him on everything. A few months later, I heard through a mutual that he was fired from his job for “inappropriate behavior” toward a female coworker. No one said what exactly happened.
Sometimes I wonder if he’s still on those forums. Still spiraling. Still feeding the fire. Other times I wonder if he’ll snap — if he’ll go from words to something worse. And I wonder… if I had said something earlier — really said something, or gotten help — would it have made a difference?
I’ll never know.
TL;DR: My longtime friend slowly fell into incel ideology. I discovered his disturbing posts filled with misogyny and gore. He started treating women terribly in real life, and I cut contact. I still feel guilty for not intervening earlier.
Anyways if you enjoyed this chatgbt story, remember to rep and follow!
