I just ghosted a friend. He was my college roommate, and intensely loyal, so much so that I would forgive his increasing craziness and inability to listen during conversations. For whatever reason, he got into this militia-nut crap to really unnerving proportions - like, he had this one story about how traffic court was unconstitutional because the flag has a gold fringe, which means that it operates under maritime law or something - the kind of stuff where people spend hours on the internet learning how to avoid taxes and such. I would even forgive his occasional clueless forays into anti-Semitism, reminding him that I'm Jewish and in the 15 years we've known each other I obviously haven't been running anything at all, certainly not the international banking system, the media, or the US government. He had a kid and moved from Jersey to the Florida panhandle, which has only made him crazier.
Anyway, a few months ago he got wind that I was experiencing modest success and called me with some vague injunctions "not to forget my friends." He's one of those guys who dabbles in everything - music, art, comedy, screenwriting. I tried to explain that I wasn't really all that successful, and I could offer pretty much what I had been all along, which is advice on his writing and introductions where appropriate (which would not be often because I don't trust him not to act like a nutjob).
So that was weird. Then about a month and a half ago he called, and I was genuinely happy to hear from him, hoping we could bridge our differences - and he launched into a series of talking points re. why I should vote for Ron Paul. It became increasingly obvious that he was part of a campaign effort for Paul supporters to call their "liberal" friends or whatever. He'd done worse, but this was the final straw.
