What’s the worse case of weaponized incompetence that you’ve personally witnessed or experienced?

25 comments

1. I had a professor in university who clearly didn’t know the material he was teaching, but instead of admitting it, he would just grade extremely harshly and make the tests incredibly difficult. It was obvious that he was trying to cover up his own lack of knowledge, and it made the class a nightmare.

2. A pastor in our Church (I’m now a former Christian) routinely preached sermons that were ridiculously out of context and often politically motivated. He basically used the pulpit as a personal stage to voice his thoughts and opinions.

   A lot of people left the Church, which only caused him to ramp up his sermons and basically spend an hour every week ranting about (and trying to apply Biblical judgement upon) those who left.

   He then turned on the few who stayed in the Church, telling them it was their duty to harass people who left. He hinted at violence but never outright called for it.

   He eventually was found to have been embezzling funds from the Church and left in disgrace but not before he’d singlehandedly destroyed many families and relationships.

3. My bil in 46 and lives with mil. Mil has health and memory issues. She needs very basic help around the house, reminders to take meds, light cleaning, drive to apts, etc. He just can’t do it. He hasn’t worked for years, lives off her pension. My fam moved accross the country to help her, and bil can’t even do the dishes.

4. Corporate democrats allowing the Republicans to pack the courts so they can fundraise on fear instead of any accomplishments.

5. My FORMER boyfriend who couldn’t put sheets on the bed correctly, and acted like he had never seen how a fitted sheet was supposed to look. He also gave up when the pillowcase got twisted because he just stuffed the pillow in it.

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7. My brother has a high IQ, went to mechanic school, started his own business, sells solar, grows his own pot plants, goes on hikes in the mountains solo, obtained a gun license, and made smart investments in Tesla years ago.

   However, he acts incompetent so my mom makes his doctors appointments for him and brings him to the appointments. She also picks up any medications or toiletry products he needs from CVS for him. My dad does all of his laundry and puts it away, does all of his dishes, takes all of his trash out, and pays for all of his bills. When my brother has a problem with his car, my dad makes an appointment with a mechanic, brings my brother’s car in for him, and then takes an Uber back.

   My brother is the smartest person I know, and yet, my parents treat him like he’s an incompetent child.

8. 136 cops in a certain town in Texas who couldn’t face down ONE active shooter.

9. My little brother who never washed the dishes properly in his life because he knew that if he did a bad job, every will stop asking him to do them. We saw right through his little play, and instead of abusing him and making him wash them again, or disciplining him in any way, we just let him have his way because “he’s the baby” which pissed me and my older brother off because WE would get punished for any “half-assed jobs” we did.

   He owns a dishwasher now. Found himself the sweetest little cupcake of a girlfriend who hates dishes too, also the baby of her family! But what gets me, is that during family gatherings now that we all flew the nest, he’s actually very happy and diligent doing dishes for granny!

   I knew all along because when we were just just old enough to start doing house chores, our babysitter told him “if you don’t like doing the dishes then just do a bad job”

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11. My ex kept leaving his dirty boxers on chairs. When I confronted him about it, he said “I don’t know where the dirty clothes box is”.

    He had been in my house for two fucking years.

12. Not “knowing” or being able to be supportive for my depression but has helped friends through theirs.

13. I’ve shared this before but I was briefly married in my early 20s to a man who kept insisting he didn’t know how to do the laundry.

    We lived in an apartment and had to use the laundry mat, and I figured we could just trade off on laundry days.

    He insisted he didn’t know when to use bleach. I said only when you have an all white clothes load. Otherwise just don’t worry about it.

    Asshole would constantly come back with bleach stained clothes….and not only that but mysteriously only my clothes would have the bleach stains on them. Always with the apology of, “its confusing”.

    We were married for about a year before I’d had enough. He wanted a mommy he could sleep with.

14. I asked my husband the other week to put the rug back in front of the kitchen sink that I washed. He threw it down crooked with a corner bunched up. When I pointed it out he said “what? You’re being so ocd.” Like no dude. Fucking do it right.

15. I had to clean my ex gf’s apartment all the time because she saw no problem with basically living in a litterbox. I ended up managing her finances/budgeting for similar reasons.

16. Had an ex who couldn’t make himself a cup of coffee. Tried to teach him, and he would run out of the room because he “couldn’t handle it.” It was coffee regular or with milk and sugar.

17. my little brother is almost 18 and can’t clean, cook simple meals, do laundry, or wash dishes because my mom has always had my sister do those things or did them herself for him.

18. A 6’4’’ 29 year old well educated man waiting for an electrician (or me, his much shorter ex gf) to come change a lightbulb for him

19. My deadbeat dad.
    Lost his co-owner job at a company because he signed a contract without reading it and has refused to get a job since. Makes my twice cancer survivor mom clean houses for a living because he’s “depressed”.

20. Oh man. Went on a trip to Costa Rica. It was my mom’s boyfriend’s family vacation, so I didn’t really know anyone. I find out that one relative named Taylor is a travel agent and booked the whole trip.

    On the morning of the flight, Taylor shows up to the airport and says her husband just LOST his passport. That she had been up all night trying to find it with no luck. Eventually she had to say “okay, we’re going without you” and she now has to travel with 4 kids to Costa Rica without her husband.

    Dude finds his passport in his fucking sock drawer 4 days later. He makes the 18 hour trip to Costa Rica to spend 1.5 days with us, then make the 18 hour trip back. Dude had a terrible attitude the whole time, too.

    I was blown away. I don’t know what I would do if my husband pulled that shit.

21. I was post-surgery and starving and asked him to make me an instant porridge. It was a chocolate powder and needed some boiling water mixed in.

    He brought me the powder in a bowl, no water added in, insisting it’s being served correctly. This man had a PhD in a natural science field. He’d used that as an argument to why what he’s serving me is correct, while he was giving me literal. powder. without. water.

22. My ex husband told me on Friday that he couldn’t pick our sons up from school because he doesn’t know which school they go to..

23. I feel bad saying this, but my bf’s household. His mom takes on everything (cooking, cleaning, and full time job). He works hard and gives her rides and stuff. His sister is close to my age (I’m 30) and everyone does everything for her. She recently got her first job, but my bf has to drive her everywhere and she gets all the free time to sleep because she doesn’t help with anything. It has been a huge point of tension between us. He is fine spoiling her and she treats everyone like shit and acts like I don’t exist.

24. My ex husband doesn’t work, hasn’t in over 12 years, and lives with his Mommy. College degreed and a CTO of a startup when I met him. I filed for child support recently and he is now refusing to let his mother go to elder care (she’s gone for years and years four days a week) because he needs to tell the court he is her full time care giver and that is why he can’t work. I knew I married a jerk, but I didn’t realize how lazy and manipulative he was…

25. My dad. My mom cooks him breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. Whenever she’s not home, he tries to make her feel bad by not eating anything. He can’t even make himself a damn toast!