AITA for telling someone that his art sucks and he won’t amount to much in life in front of his friends and family ?

A Reddit user shared a heated encounter with a friend named John during a birthday party. After enduring months of belittling comments about their career as an engineer, the user snapped and publicly criticized John’s photography skills, his lack of career progression, and his behavior.

This confrontation led to a physical altercation and the user being kicked out of the party, with no contact from their social group since.

‘ AITA for telling someone that his art sucks and he won’t amount to much in life in front of his friends and family ?’

I have a small group of close friends (all males around the age of 25) that I hang out with almost every day. We’ve all known each other almost all our lives and recently (~1.5 years) got a new addition to our group, John. I never really liked John. He was rude, obnoxious, and would always talk like he knows everything.

He was also incredibly pretentious. A friend of mine said “Einstein” once and John interrupted him to say, “I have no idea who you are talking about. Do you mean the reknown scientist Albert EinSHTein?”. I once put up a snapchat story saying, “I love college football!”, and he replied to my story with “It’s called gridiron you m**on”.

I don’t understand how but my friends readily accepted him into our friends circle. On one night about 5-6 months ago, we had a little get-together and were just drinking and having fun. John was kind of tipsy. We had some new girls show up so I was kinda working my charm on them.

They asked me what I did and I went “I’m a Biomed Engineer”. I don’t know why that triggered John so much, but he went on this hour long tirade about how I’m just a drone in a rat race. He kept telling me about how I’m just like every other person and lacked creativity. He later passed out, but his little tirade became a running joke in our group.

Every time I mention work or anything, John would start roasting me. He nicknamed me ‘drone’ and kept calling me that even though I expressed multiple times that I dont like to be called a drone. He would keep telling me about how easy engineering is (he watched some intro to engineering courses online) and that any monkey with a brain can do what I do.

That really pissed me off. Once I told him to shut the f**k up but he was like, “What are you going to do, fight me? I dare you to swing”. I didn’t want to fight him so now I started getting referred to as a ‘pussy’. Over the last few months or so I kinda went frontpage a couple of times on Reddit and everyone was like, “damn M0shka you famous now” (as a joke).

That triggered him even more. He’d say stuff like “His posts s**k. They’re not even funny. Reddit is now just filled with stupid facebookers who upvote stupid clickbait s**t and downvote meaningful talent.” At this point it is relevant to bring up what John does. He’s a ‘photographer’ who works as a barista at Starbucks. How good is he?

Honestly, he started off as an annoying kid with a DSLR, no talent, and a facebook page where he uploaded 3/10 pictures. Over the years he got slightly better but it’s still terrible. I’d say he’s more of a 5/10 now. 2 weeks ago, he got rejected from his dream job and made an Instagram post about how National Georgraphy discriminated him because of his skin color (brown).

Last week, we had a surprise birthday party at his place with his family (he lives with his parents) and friends. At the party, I apologized to him (I hadn’t met him since the post) and said, “I’m sorry you didn’t get Nat Geo”. To which he got angry again and said, “I’d rather eat my own s**t than be a drone like you.

What I’m doing is making real art and it’s something your robot brain won’t ever understand now or in the future, so I actually feel sorry for you”. He said stuff like this in front of a girl I was with who got so enraged that she left and told me to tell them that shes sick or something. That’s it. I f**king lost it.

We were handing out mics to talk about our favorite memory with John and I took that opportunity to say, “Well John, your pictures f**king s**k, no wonder Nat Geo rejected you. You’re a 27 year old barista with no college degree, mooching off your parents, and taking worse pictures than any j**kass with an iPhone camera.

You’re not going to amount to anything in life so just — *I get cut off here*” His dad grabbed the mic and shoved me. John came charging at me but everyone just held him back. The rest of the guys were like get him out of here, and I got kicked out.

No one has talked to me since the incident and John blocked me from all social media. Our group chat has been pretty silent too. John also apparently made a roast post about me. Idk if I should apologize to him or not. Sorry for the long post. I know John is an a**hole, but AITA?

These are the responses from Reddit users:

the_penumbra_cafe −  He’s a d**k with some serious inferiority issues and you have s**tty timing issues. I don’t think it makes you an a**hole for reaching your breaking point with him, but there was probably a better time to let loose on him than at the party.

StrictAngle −  Saying all that on the mic in front of everyone is an a**hole move, but I think you know that. However, I don’t blame you as I couldn’t handle being around someone like that. I think if the dust settles, just respond to his rude comments there and then as he says them, cos now people will remember this incident and think you’re the same if not worse than him

NakedandFearless462 −  Definitely don’t apologize. F**k him. He owes YOU an apology. I swear to God if you apologize I will track you down and call you a drone.

LackLusterLIVE −  Sounds like you’d be better off with new friends.

Bedzzzz −  YTA on this occasion but man, he had it coming.

Janaelle5 −  Well, yeah, but you’re not more of an a**hole than he was. You were being mocked and ignored, no one taking you into consideration. He’s a tool. You’ll only look like a fool if you apologize. Stand up for yourself and own what you did and that he deserved it.

Tskcool −  From what it seems, John definitely has some issue with you. Considering how much he bashes you for being a drone, my likely theory is that he too wanted to get into engineering at some point but could not and is now taking out his frustrations through a “grapes are sour” strategy,

making you a target simply because you achieved something he could not. I theorized this because I did something like this once before realizing how f**king dumb it is.

Alex-Murphy −  NTA and I’d say don’t f**king apologize to anyone. If your “friends” in the group don’t care that he mistreats you then they’re not your friends. Talk to them individually to decide whether to remain friends with them or not but don’t for a g**damn second apologize to him or anyone who supports him.

MtGMagicBawks −  YTA mate, but he had it coming. There are nicer (and better timed) ways to tell someone off, but I don’t fault you being at the end of your rope.

[Reddit User] −  Lol YTA but I like you. He’s a bigger a**hole and deserved it

A tense moment at a lively birthday party, with a man holding a microphone and angrily addressing another guest. The guest, visibly furious, is being restrained by other attendees.

The background includes balloons, a birthday cake, and a mix of shocked and awkward expressions from onlookers. The scene highlights the contrast between the celebratory setting and the dramatic conflict.