My example was from around college with a Disney adult (I know) who was adamant that Pocahontas shouldn't be counted in the Disney princess line up.
That fixation set an alarm bell in my liberal brain, but I didn't want to think it was racism at the time. But the fixation on using technicalities (not technically a princess in the western monarchy sense) like in this case was just reaching to exclude a category of people in a way that was socially acceptable.
I can see that unbending view of rules and technicalities to be a red flag. The lack of willingness to take a personal stake in a topic and couching your real thoughts in arbitrary rules has been a clear sign for me to watch out. I see it with boardgames too. The excessive rule-following clues me in to a lot of reactionary behavior.
What about the rest of you? What things turned out to be red flags like that?
Edit - Fast forward to present day and this person is no longer a friend and is big into Q, Trump, and covid denialism.
Wtf do we have the same coworker? Is she also weirdly antivax? Mine told me to hold a magnet up to the injection site after I got covid shot she said it would stick lmao.
In a way, I'm glad that you can relate. To her credit, she's been very good about COVID stuff. Vaxxed early on, masks at all times at work. She was in complete agreement with me that anti-Asian hate was a huge problem in the beginning of the pandemic.