Professional Guide to Disliking Someone

There is this one guy I know, fellow that was in a bunch of my classes last semester and hung around the same circle of friends I tried to ingratiate myself into. Speaking about this kid to a fellow classmate over Facebook the other day, we've agreed to call him Pontificus Maximus for the purposes of protecting the identity of this particular scumbag.

The reason I don't like this guy is how similar he is to me. I know that's an odd reason to hate someone, but when another person shares a lot of your personality quirks without any of the same moral views, it's hard to simply accept him as just another human being. It's almost like I consider him a rival. Not in a classic "I'm gonna beat him at this one thing!" type of way, but if he makes it more successful in life than I do (which I highly suspect), I'll be disappointed with the rest of the world.

The brass tacks of why I dislike this guy is how manipulative he is. That's not the kind of claim one can make without proof so I'm going to share with you the story of when this guy went from being someone I considered a friend to when I started having doubts about him as a human being.

Me and some other friends from the Dixie Sun news staff went to go see a film down at the one theater seems like everyone enjoys best. (And for all the Dixie Sun staffers, yes, I know that former sentence was grammatically incorrect so you can bugger off now. I'm telling a story; shut your hole.) I honestly can't recall what movie it was, just that three people I knew were there and one girl I'd never met. Movie was over, we all meet up in the lobby and as I'm leaving, I overhear people talking logistics of getting home. Me being the kindly hearted helpful soul that I am figures I would find out where everyone was headed because if it was near my place, I could give a lift. Sure enough, this girl wasn't too far from my apartment so I offered her a lift if she needed it. She accepted, and everyone else walked off.

Almost immediately, I got some cryptic text from Ponty stating, and I quote, "I am going to kill you tomorrow." I scratched my head a few times, then hollered at him asking for an explanation. He was red in the face with anger and made up some bullshit story about some project someone had due tomorrow I was supposed to help on. I honestly couldn't figure out what the hell he was on about.

I drive this girl home and check my messages. He sent another one giving me some bullshit about how "When someone talks to you in some medium, you should respond in that medium." Obviously, those of you who have a personal relationship with me know I think this is utter crap. Talking is talking is talking and if you're going to send cryptic messages, expect someone as straightforward as I am to call you out on it. We got into a heated text debate and the short of it is he was mad at me for cockblocking. I was appalled on so many levels.

This guy, who says all the time about how wonderful and smart and straightforward and verbose he is, couldn't tell me in the theater when I offered her a ride home he was going to ask this girl out for drinks? There's nothing socially awkward about saying "Well, my friend and I were going to grab a few drinks and we'd like you to come with us" immediately after I asked if she wanted a ride back to her place. I don't see how that's awkward in the slightest, but Pontificus was quite adamant I put him in a spot. Also, it's not like I had any idea he was interested in her because he was in a relationship with a girl at the time. One, I might add, I think would be a catch. His now ex-girlfriend lacked a sense of humor, but was otherwise sweet and endearing and pretty.

He came up with more bologna sandwich about how EEEEVERYone knew he'd been trying to break up with her for months. That's an eyeroll, especially because according to him, every time he tried to break up with her ended in sex. Gee, man. You're trying really hard to let HER down easy. Obviously there's nothing in this for you at all, you manipulative lying piece of sh-- sorry. Got carried away there.

So that was the beginning of it for me. I started paying more attention to his mannerisms, his excuses, the way he treated people. I honestly think he's a sociopath. He doesn't display the antisocial side of the definition, but he clearly lacks a sense of moral responsibility and social conscience. I guarantee he'd argue with it, too, because I recall him talking about social responsibilities all the time. Super hard to take him serious, as convicted as he came across, because he also talked at great length how much he was into Game Theory. To take an except from the introductory paragraph out of Wikipedia's entry on Game Theory: "game theory models strategic situations, or games, in which an individual's success in making choices depends on the choices of others."


Which... doesn't sound quite so sinister now that I've bothered to look it up. Man I feel like a doof. I'm going to go ahead and leave my mistake in here because I'm a man and can own up to it.


The perception I had was how he treats everyone as if they were part of a game. I figured it tied into that somehow but it doesn't. Still, this IS how this guy operates. He shmoozes and pretends to be friends with people he can't stand. I should know, because even after it was clear to me how much he didn't like me, if he thought he could get something out of me he'd try to get it. Saw him do it with others, too. The Dixie Sun staff is in for a real treat letting him onto the actual scholarshipped staff for next semester. I don't understand how the new editor in chief thought this kid wasn't just trying to weasel into a cheaper semester and to try and usurp power considering how much he disdains the rest of the editors.


I'll hand it to Ponty: He's better at manipulation than I'll ever be which is how to get ahead in the news industry. The best thing I got out of last semester failing so hard is I know what I *don't* want to do and that's be anything like what I was being molded into. I hate news organizations with a passion now. All of them. They are all corrupt and they all lie, and they all pat themselves on the back for it because they're blind to it. They are blind to their own corruption. The only time a story isn't slanted or straight misinformed is when it's about something totally irrelevant, like the fluffy new panda at the zoo story that ends every broadcast.


I have made it a goal to be nothing like this guy, and I hope others will stand up to his superficial charm and let him know how much of an epic waste of organic tissue he is. I think people as a whole need to have shorter leashes with their friends, but still be willing to give second chances. It has to be known it's a second chance, though. Can't just continue to let a friend do something that bothers you, and just smile and say "That's okay." Because it's not okay, and if you don't stand up for yourself and what you believe in, you will be crushed under the weight of someone who will stand up against you.


And sometimes, that person might not even realize they're walking on you. The feeling I dread more than any other is abusing someone and making them feel bad without even realizing it. That's why I wish others were as convicted in what they believe as I am in what I believe. I can respect someone, even if they are as much of a tool as Pontificus Maximus, if they have the balls to let me know I'm stepping over boundaries.