I’m not talking about people that irritate you by chewing ice loudly at work, or politicians whose policies you feel are psychotic. I mean people you know (or knew) who you really, truly hate, with a burning.
One of mine is a former boss. She’s pretty much everything I hate in the world: a greedy liar who ensnares her employees with false promises and bullshit rhetoric. Her political views are reprehensible to me, but they also offend me in a much more personal way that I find hard to articulate, perhaps because she was like a cuckoo, hatching in a nest I thought was safe. She pretended to be on the side of the workers - a boss doesn’t have to be on your side, or any side but making money, I guess, but to use that pretense as a way to manipulate loyalty while screwing people over just as hard as you can…Well, I hate her so much I actually get uncomfortable if I see someone who looks like her or hear an accent like hers.
There was an ex who picked me up as a homeless teenager, set me on my feet, and proceeded to completely warp my ability to connect with another human being for many years. But I’m better now, so the burning isn’t so fierce.
Maybe this belongs in the Pit, but I’m not looking for a rant-off, though I suppose a bit of that is inevitable.