Hey guys, here's the issue.
So a few months ago, my friend and my other friend got into a big fight, we'll call them James and Tim. Long story short, they aren't speaking, and the argument ended with both parties feeling that the other person was "the toxic one". I've been friends with both of these guys for over ten years, and I had no intention of stopping being friends with either of them, but recently James has been putting me more and more in the middle of things. He constantly talks to me about what a horrible person Tim is and how awful he treats people. I get pretty tired of hearing it all, and Tim knows James' saying things like this to me, but he doesnt really care at this point. Tim has always been more of the level headed one, and he has no intention of talking to me about James or trying to change my opinion of him. James, on the other hand, just can't accept the fact that I remain friends with Tim. He stepped it up and now gets furious at me, asking "How can you be be friends with Tim after he treated me so badly? Do you not see the way he treats me?" I get that Tim was mean to James, but James acts like he is completely innocent. It takes two to argue, and when he brings up Tim's horrible treatment, I tell him that he also treated Tim horribly, and that he's not the victim. He views this as me attempting to "Justify James' horrible actions" and gets even angrier. Fast forward to three weeks ago. James messaged Tim, and he was attempting to get an apology out of him. This lead to a huge blowout, with many more insults flung from both parties. Right after the argument, James texts me and tells me that he can't be friends with anyone who is friends with Tim, including me. "It's either me or him". Of course, I didn't stand for this. I told him off, angrily telling him he has no right to choose who I'm friends with. I also told him I don't want to stop being friends with either of them, and that if he wants to stop being friends with me, it's his own choice. He's acted very different since then, and I feel a bit bad. Am I the asshole in this situation?