VivaBarnesLaw
Politics • Culture • News
This is the VivaBarnesLaw Community.
Interested? Want to learn more about the community?
November 30, 2023
Actually unfriended by a former actual friend

Today I had a 2+ decade-old best friend formally cut ties with me. We hadn't really been in touch since Covid. Whenever I came back to Canada I would DM, to grab a coffee / lunch, and would get a run-around which I chalked up to busy lives. I suspected other issues were at play, but I thought I was being over cynical - even for myself.

In anticipation of coming back for the holidays, I reached out yesterday with a humorous "Are you still alive" (the thought that my friend has actually died did occur to me). The response was a terse and formal "I have no interest in catching up" (paraphrasing).

It was weird. An emotional gut-punch that I could actually feel physically.

We hadn't been in touch for years, so there is no actual day-to-day loss. It's not even the formal death of the potential "we're friends and will catch up when we catch up" type thing that hurts so much either.

It's trying to understand what happened in the mind and soul of a 25+ year friend who knew and knows me in a way few people do.

The reply was so bizarre it actually felt like maybe the account was hacked. But it wasn't.

What's most depressing about this is not really the loss of a "friend". It happens all the time, and by the time it happens, the friend is - almost definitionally - no longer a friend. It's just how it happened in this case. No cheating. No broken promises. No drunken fights where someone said something that can't be taken back.

Just politics.

Just the fruits of the destabilizing forces we have been living under for years.

What evolution - no, devolution - has to go on in someone's psyche to unfriend a lifelong friend over politics? And unfriend in the real sense - not in the superficial social media sense?

What level of trauma... of demonization... of perceived fears. Perceived evil.

In the mind of my former friend, I had become so bad - so wicked - so evil - that 25 years of memories had been recreated in his mind.

All the shared memories of friendship replaced. Replaced with a manufactured perception of evil so evil it required a formal rupture of decades of lived experience.

I forgive my friend. He is my friend and if the next time we see each other is at a funeral instead of Christmas, I will forgive him, hug him, and forget the insanity.

But I will never forgive the entities that did this to my friend. And to so many others.

How weak and fragile are the souls of those who have been conditioned to fear their friends.

Interested? Want to learn more about the community?
What else you may like…
Videos
Podcasts
Posts
Articles
August 21, 2025
Apparently they are not locust…

But I saw the Florida giant grasshoppers, making babies!

00:03:41
August 16, 2025
Ugly diving championship

There’s a Tennessee river sporting event all weekend in Chattanooga.

Yesterday, we caught the “ugly diving” competition.

I actually missed the best of the ugly dives. Here is one by wave example.

Heading to the aquarium. Ethan playing around on the rock climbing wall. Watching some wakeboarding.

This place is beautiful.

00:01:07
August 14, 2025
Ginger said I would hit steel at 1000 yards…

I HIT STEEL AT 1,000 YARDS!!!

00:02:05
February 17, 2024
Appearance on Richard Syrette

I did a quick hit on Richard Syrette yesterday. Gotta keep Canadians apprised of the U.S. madness.

Appearance on Richard Syrette
The Barnes Brief, Podcast Format: Monday, July 17, 2023

Closing Argument: Birthright citizenship is deeply American, and wholly Constitutional.

The Barnes Brief, Podcast Format: Monday, July 17, 2023
Declaration of Independence

Audio podcast style.

Declaration of Independence
Questions for Bourbon with Barnes: Thursday, August 21, 2025

Ask in replies and answering Live at 9ish eastern tonight...

The bad news of the day… Ostriches

The government got authorization to kill the ostriches.

Because of safety.

Despite the fact that they’ve been healthy for damn near a year.

The story is not yet over.

The ostriches have not yet been killed. Not sure what chapter of the story this is.

In a sane universe, this type of abuse would lead to the overthrow of a government.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/universal-ostrich-court-case-loss-1.7615212

post photo preview
The Barnes Brief: Daily Edition, Wednesday, August 20, 2025

I. INTROUDCTION

A. Appearances

B. Art of the Day 

C. Wisdom of the Day

D. Cultural Recommendation

II. THE EVIDENCE

A. Daily News of Curated Interest

B. Daily Deep Dive: Pay For Play Pam Hit List

C. Cases of Consequence

 

The Barnes Brief: Daily Edition

I. INTROUDCTION

A. Appearances

  • Viva w/ OKeefe
  • Barnes Brothers MEGA Soccer Preview
    placeholder
  • NFL Preview.
    placeholder

*Bonus: Happy Anniversary to Mr. & Mrs. Peoples Pundit. https://x.com/LauraBaris2/status/1958179805951607124

B. Art of the Day: The solitary gentleman at the end of the bar, to his lonesome, a smoke in hand, a drink, and a water, against the wooden bookcases holding their whiskey and rum bottles, embraced somewhere in thought in the inner world of the imagination and contemplation. 

C. Not-So Wise Wisdom of the Day: “I think the future takes care of itself.” Pam Bondi. 

D. Cultural Recommendation: Taibbi’s entrance to investigative journalism from a left populist critique. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7897556-griftopia

*Note: A reminder — links are NOT endorsements of the ideas contained therein. The Library is big, and it mostly consists of ideas I do not personally share.  

 

Only for Supporters
To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter
Read full Article
post photo preview
The Barnes Brief: Daily Edition, Tuesday, August 19, 2025

I. INTROUDCTION

A. Appearances

B. Art of the Day 

C. Wisdom of the Day

D. Cultural Recommendation

II. THE EVIDENCE

A. Daily News of Curated Interest

B. Daily Deep Dive: Peace Possibilities

C. Cases of Consequence

 

I. INTROUDCTION

A. Appearances

  • Viva w/ OKeefe
  • Barnes Brothers MEGA Soccer Preview
    placeholder
  • NFL Preview.
    placeholder

B. Art of the Day:  Pushkin’s desk in the center of his Victorian style library where he penned great works of Russian literature, and ever since seeing his library have wanted to recreate it myself some day as a place for inspired contemplation. 

C. Wisdom of the Day: “Many agree that the worst thing that could ever happen is if Russia and China get closer.” Donald Trump. 

D. Cultural Recommendation: The Apartment, an alternative view of history akin to the film Russian Arc, tracing history through a single place, the prism of an apartment in Moscow across a century of time. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43483939-the-apartment?

*Note: A reminder — links are NOT endorsements of the ideas contained therein. The Library is big, and it mostly consists of ideas I do not personally share.  

 

Only for Supporters
To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter
Read full Article
post photo preview
The Barnes Brief: Weekend of August 15, 2025

I. INTROUDCTION

A. Appearances

  • Duran Interview on Summit
    placeholder
  • What Are The Odds w/ Baris.
    placeholder
  • Sidebar w/ Paul Dans.
    placeholder

B. Art of the Day: Reminds me of the first Superman film, raised on the frontier by a Nebraska farmer. The blurry motif of the moon in the endless sky on the American frontier, with gold corn harvest bouncing off the moonlight, amidst simple homes, a classy pickup truck, on an old American hi way to someplace new in the night, the unfinished discovery of life. 

C. Wisdom of the Day: “Each time you see a great segment or read exposés in the newspapers and magazines, chances are that they were made possible in part, if not in whole, by reporters using the FOIA.” Ralph Nader. 

D. Cultural Recommendation: The National Security Agency’s FOIA Library. Always fun to snoop around now and then. https://www.nsa.gov/helpful-links/nsa-foia/declassification-transparency-initiatives/historical-releases/

 

Only for Supporters
To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter
Read full Article
See More
Available on mobile and TV devices
google store google store app store app store
google store google store app tv store app tv store amazon store amazon store roku store roku store
Powered by Locals