I've been talking with Alec about this question but he is just as confused as I am.

I'm not supposed to be home now, in fact, I should be in Sandusky, Ohio (the hometown of Sugar Kane/Kowalczyk from Some Like it Hot (aka one of my very favorite movies, and my favorite Marilyn Monroe flick)) in a tent with my boyfriend. Instead, I drove home at midnight, and am here writing this post and talking to people at quarter after four in the morning.

The story is long and complex about that, but the root was the relentless browbeating of my boyfriend by the outing organizer for something that he had apologized for, had no adverse effects, and could not be undone (but simply could have been bad though the chance was so incredibly insignificant). The outing organizer had made many posts on the online thread for this outing that he all strongly indicated that he really didn't like my boyfriend, so I met him with this in mind. Then he relentlessly called my boyfriend an asshole, and, in the course of doing that, very sternly looked at him and was like "seriously, I want to kill you" Later, I am to believe that the organizer and my boyfriend are friends, and that the organizer routinely "threatens to kill people"

This, undoubtedly reminds Erica of the fights I had with Follis and begs the questions...

When did we become so tolerant of jerks in our society? Is it something about "computer geeks" that brings this on? (this is a group of people from SomethingAwful) Or is this normal? Does every social circle just have that one asshole that everyone tolerates and even likes because of his assholery (or at least everyone tells him that they like it)?

Today, a friend told me that people hang out with assholes because the assholes are nice to them and that makes them feel good. I relate to that feeling, but I know better now. My friend also told me to hang out with people that have more self esteem, and he is right.