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Category: manipulation

#1347: “My friend asked me if we could add ‘benefits,’ I still feel weird about it, am I justified in ending the friendship?”

August 31, 2021August 31, 2021 ~ JenniferP

"Good news, I finally persuaded my fiancée to let me sleep with other people, now we can finally act out all my fantasies about you over Zoom!" Whoa, seems sexy!

#1346: “My new ‘friend’ has alt-right skeletons in her closet. How do I nope out?”

July 28, 2021July 28, 2021 ~ JenniferP

"Inside this lady are two bigots, one is capable of acting nice sometimes and the other is not, don't feed either of them with your time, sympathy, or attention."

#1333: Multi-Level Marketing Cults & Performative Friendship

May 17, 2021May 18, 2021 ~ JenniferP

How to plot the accumulated costs of "useless objects" vs. "pointless arguments" over time?

#1330: “I don’t want this friend as a roommate or a summer houseguest, but my sibling and I sort of already agreed.”

May 6, 2021May 6, 2021 ~ JenniferP ~ 1 Comment

People who won't take 'no' for an answer often present the risk as you being seen as mean or selfish when you don't do what they want, when really, it's that if you don't say 'no' you have to put up with them in your personal space. Re-balance your risk assessments, friend!

#1324: “I moved out of a terrible roommate situation two years ago, but our mutuals won’t stop trying to ‘make peace.'”

April 20, 2021April 20, 2021 ~ JenniferP

"I hated living with them so I moved the hell out. What is there to 'mediate?'"

#1322: “My friend’s (white female) roommate is a creepy creep.”

March 27, 2021March 27, 2021 ~ JenniferP

"Don't touch me" isn't complicated. You know who makes it complicated? CREEPS, THAT'S WHO.

It Came From The Search Terms: January 2021

January 18, 2021January 19, 2021 ~ JenniferP

It is that time when I pretend that the search strings people typed in are actual questions. Details? What details. Mitigating circumstances? Ha! It's all assumptions, all the time! 

#1307: “Persistently apologetic ex thinks he’s Miles Vorkosigan.”

January 6, 2021 ~ JenniferP

To be fair, it was a Very Good apology. In the books. Where it happened exactly *one* time.

#1305: “Please help me close up the proverbial ‘woodwork’.”

December 29, 2020 ~ JenniferP ~ 2 Comments

"Say, Old Bean, it was really fun to have sex for a while, but I'm going to need you to find a new topic of conversation."

#1298: “Could my adult friend have been grooming me for years?”

November 19, 2020November 20, 2020 ~ JenniferP ~ 1 Comment

The subject line says it all, for content warning purposes, though if it helps: The Letter Writer sent the person packing and it was not a *successful* grooming attempt. 

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