It's not something I'm prepared to shame you for, but I felt like this needed more in order to to be a legit deepthink post. I agree that someone who doesn't just listen when you're having a bad day is being less than ideal as a friend, but what is it about that behavior that makes someone bad friend material?
I felt like you should have dug deeper into your justifications as well as justifying the value of avoiding a bad friend with a more thought out argument. As it is I'm left thinking that all you've really said is, "Bad friends are bad. Good friends are good. Bad friends don't listen. Good friends listen."
I would challenge your thinking on the underlying claim that I think you are making when I interpret this with the best charity that I can. I came to a breakthrough in my therapy a few years back when I was talking to my group about how I could never connect with my mother. I love her but we've had a hard time being friends. That just made the hardships we put each other through all that more painful.
The therapist told me that I really should just look at someone like my mother as who she is and expect her to be nothing different from that. I can't expect to change her to think more critically. I also can't shame her for having simple interests. I can either accept her for who she is and expect nothing different, or I can reject her completely from my life as a person I don't have anything in common with.
Funny enough, that really helped. I wanted to have my Mom feel closer, but I couldn't change her. From that point on, I started to see nothing else in her but the features that I liked and dealt with her for the sake of her virtues rather than what was missing.
The point is, if you know someone who doesn't listen to you when you talk to them, yes they are narcissistic. You shouldn't talk to them about your issues, because you know they will try to one up you. If they are toxic and annoying in any other way, it might warrant removing yourself from their company as much as possible. Otherwise, you should just watch what people do and expect them to repeat the same behaviors in the future. From there, just act accordingly. Talk to the friend who listens, not the lesser friend or acquaintance who perhaps literally can't.
I feel you are focusing too hard on the listening and as a result miss the deeper point of the post. I would even argue that the part about listening constitutes only a minor point at best. Heck, the last paragraph of your reply pretty much sums up the whole point I'm making at the end of the post.
I'll quickly try to summarize my points again, and hope they come out more clearly this time:
Thesis: it is a moral duty to remove bad friends from your life and surround yourself with only good friends.
How do you define good and bad friends?
Why is it moral to remove bad friends from your life?
Hence, it is your moral duty to end bad friendships and remove these people from your life.
Hope this clarify things. Shame I couldn't get this across in the post itself. I promise to try harder next time, senpai. :-D
Also, I think a child-parent relationship is a totally different beast than a regular friendship. For one you can un-friend someone quite easily (and this happens all the time), but you can't un-child or un-parent someone. So you are almost forced to accept all the bad parts about your child or parent. Which brings a whole set of new problems, but also its own unique kind of beauty.
You haven't met my family. A narcissist for a father will really put the need to not let blood be that strong of a bond on your mind.
That said, this is what I was really pointing out, structure. I assumed you had a structure in mind, but it came out vague. I also think you'd be good to go deeper with it. It isn't horrible, but it's also not your best work. I'm just confident you could do better and I think we want to push for that in deepthink.
Please be just as critical of my deepthink posts. I'm not always at my best either. Like when Alexander_Alexis pointed out my typos (Ahh! Look away! Edit! Ediiiiiitttt!!!!!). I still respect you in our new community. I just wanted to help push the bar with my feedback.
I'd just like to say that if you can unfriend someone easily, you were never their friend!
Yeah that's a poor choice of words.