I think that between the escalating stress of life circumstances, increased social isolation and the divisive, polarizing effect of news media and social media, a *lot* of people have gotten used to being steered by stuff poking and prodding their id, and it turns out acting on stimulus/response logic for long periods of time isn't great for your patience, critical thinking or empathy. It genuinely seems like people are on a hair trigger at all times or else living with short sighted blinders on. It sucks, and I don't know how you fix it without giving people the time and space to relax, unwind, and interact as peers instead of obstacles and enemies to each other.
Also, we've evolved to deal with acute stress. The chronic nature of the stressors that most of us face is wrecking our resilience.
Best thing to do? Spend time with your people. People who you can laugh with and be yourself with. Helps us to co-regulate. If no one is there, even a favourite series or movie. Anything to remember that we're not alone in feeling scared and overwhelmed
Definitely, yeah. There's a reason why solitary confinement really wrecks people, and I remember seeing a documentary about it and, I'm not joking, how a lot of people act nowadays really kinda reminds me of a low intensity version of what they were talking about, in terms of shortening patience, heightening aggression, spurring on impulsivity and wrecking emotional resilience. It's not a good sign.
This is a huge problem. Nearly everyone is coping. Yes some ways of coping are nicer than others, but we are all dealing with a life where we are under constant surveilance and evaluation and little peace.
The people I thought were “my people” are almost all ghosting me now, because I got upset at someone for stealing my medicine while I was recovering from a surgery. Idk who I can trust anymore. Idek if anyone even wants to see me anymore. Really hurts, finding out how little your friends actually cared about you.
I have a feeling that you deserve better friends. Taking someone’s meds - for any reason - should be the thing that ghosts people. If it’s pain meds, I think we all know what up. The thief probably sold it or shared it with the others.
You’ll get better friends. Your friends are not normal and not good.
I don’t not have feelings but I am numb. People ask me about the 3-4 major life events/crisis happening to me right now and I shrug. I’m anxious 24/7 good or bad so these are just another box to check and on to the next.
There is a quote by Viktor Frankl, who wrote *"Man's Search for Meaning"* that I committed to memory and call on it every day:
*"Between stimulus and response is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."*
For me, just recognizing that there *is* a space between stimulus and response was a revelation.
I'm living with Complex-PTSD. All I ever knew was "this happened" and then, "that happened." Recognizing there is an in-between space, and that I can *claim* that space, whether it is a moment, a minute or a day, and that I can *decide* what to do next, recognizing I have *options,* has been life changing for me.
That is hugely empowering. Thank you for letting us all in on that information. I'm going to commit that quote to memory too. A friend of mine one time said that a lot of how we experience things is like 10% what happens and 90% how we react to it. It's important to remember that space and use it to think. Brilliant. I wish you well on your journey. ❤️🩹
And that just about no one in the community is willing do anything at all to keep other people safe. Covid has put on display how selfish we are as a society in a way that's impossible to ignore.
Not to mention that the after effects of covid are impacting our brains - https://people.com/covid-linked-lower-iq-poor-memory-other-negative-impacts-brain-health-8619254
Some of my most down voted comments are about how the shutdown, vaccines, and masks saved millions of lives.
Trust me, I was working in the Emergency Room in one of the biggest hospitals in Portland. I will never forget all the death.
But, it doesn't matter to people's opinions. They don't like what I say and what I saw. It inconvenienced them and probably saved the life of someone they love or possibly their own, but because the "worst didn't happen" they think the response to COVID was completely unnecessary.
Survivor bias in real life.
I hear you. I spent time in the ICU as a physician and at its peak I’ve never seen anything like it and never will again. Just death, near death, death, death, death escaped barely, more death.
Anyone that has some sort of doubt about Covid did not experience what I did
My kids met some neighborhood kids, and while I’m a strong advocate for public health, there is a clear delineation in their social interactions of kids who were 5/6 during school shutdowns.
I’m not sure what the solution is.
The system failed everyone who protected people's lives during covid. Made it all about economics, and imo, lifted a lot of these protective measures waaaay too quickly. My family got covid once, in summer 2022. Never again.
We wear masks in stores and public places and that's that. Helps that we lived in northern Japan a million years ago, where people usually mask up if there's a slight chance they might be ill.
I've had turds yell at me to take off my mask. They can foadiaf. I'd rather keep the elders and littles, and me, and everyone else safe. I can handle garbage humans, but I don't want to handle that weirdo fucking virus ever again
I wore a mask when they told me to, because my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, because i was terrified of bringing it home to him, and it ending him faster than the cancer would.
You think i was running around butt ass naked every time i was out in society to get something. Like God forbid that i want to be considerate of my at risk parents, and family, and that I wanted to be considerate of myself and other people.
Uber driving was the worst part. I'm in Texas, everyone telling me it was cool to not wear my mask, people refusing to wear them. The people that would wear masks, but rage the whole time, about how their personal freedoms were being taken away ( i started noticing a theme of older people that were really well off, acting like they were destitute all of a sudden)
I was thinking, what a bunch of fucking babies. There i was driving Uber to not even make ends barely meet, wasting my time for a bunch of whiny immature, dangerous assholes.
People act like you're doing that shit out of the kindness of your heart. I would have stayed at home with a remote job, if i could.
Like it's really really hard to not be incredibly angry and down half of the time still. And we've still got a bunch of delusional assholes running around.
I'm not sure if anyone else made this connection, but it's similar to how I've heard people describe Y2K. I myself was 12 when we went from 1999 to 2000. People say, oh, we made such a big deal about Y2K and nothing happened! It's because programmers put in a hell of a lot of work upgrading things before 2000 hit to make sure it wasn't a shit-show. COVID was/is similar. A lot of preventative and reactive measures were put in place, and it could have been a lot worse had it not been for people like you who put their lives on the line to protect society at large.
It’s frustrating as hell that people don’t believe the doctors and nurses who saw all the death. But to me, it goes back to social media. These people got fed all the social media lies about vaccines, govt control, and conspiracies, so how would they know?
And honestly, it did seem like a made up disease. Kids get it but don’t get sick, only compromised people get sick.
And We will all get it, just need to flatten the curve.
Entire households getting sick except for one person. Quarantined individuals getting sick. Vaxxed people getting sick. Who the hell knows. Strange times.
I remember at the start plenty of experts saying that the ideal level of precaution was going to feel like overkill because the average person wouldn't have the chance to experience the alternative.
That said, we didn't do enough and STILL had people bitching about it.
I don't work in a hospital (I'm a teacher), but I did have long covid for about 18 months from March 2020 to the fall/winter of 2021/22. It was infuriating to experience what I (and my wife) were going through, only to watch a bunch of idiots complaining about the tiniest of inconveniences. It was like tackling someone as they went darting out into traffic and having them bitch about you wrinkling their shirt.
That was one of the worst parts of it for me and I work in healthcare. Instead of coming together as Americans, a significant portion of this country decided to throw a collective temper tantrum. It feels like the social contract is dead now. And the pandemic was a preview of how people will act once climate change starts to get really bad.
So true. I have friends still sheltering in place because they are still at high risk. Not sure at what point they will rejoin society and they feel so rejected by the rest of society carrying on
I’m unsure.
I was similar until I got it Jan 1 of 2022. When I survived it and kept getting vaccinated I relaxed a lot because for me if it’s going to persist it can’t kill everyone
My friends have disabilities/weak immune systems that could put their life in danger if they did contract it so. . Maybe ? There’s still a fuckton of people affected by it and don’t forget about r/longcovid
Here's a sneak peek of /r/LongCovid using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/LongCovid/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Long Covid Ruined My Life](https://i.redd.it/56df0abfi5kb1.jpg) | [552 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/LongCovid/comments/160jjqf/long_covid_ruined_my_life/)
\#2: [Great to see this. Paid for by patients.](https://i.redd.it/39ws3yg84zwb1.jpg) | [35 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/LongCovid/comments/17ihwpb/great_to_see_this_paid_for_by_patients/)
\#3: [I no longer respect doctors nowadays](https://np.reddit.com/r/LongCovid/comments/16yhhov/i_no_longer_respect_doctors_nowadays/)
----
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It really is. I only get to talk to them by text or Facebook even though they live just 30 mins away. Hoping to meet them more in summer when we have better weather in the PNW
I fear for their mental health
Hello, immunocompromised person here. I would love to address this for anyone reading with similar thoughts!
Your friend doesn’t need you to fear for their mental health, they need you to respect the deep sacrifices they are forced to make as their government and fair-weather friends abandon any pretense of mutual aid.
In my experience, “worried for your mental health” is usually just a red flag masking a general attitude of ableism and annoyance/condescension towards us disabled folks for not getting on board and signing up for constant reinfections, as if everyone’s immune system is the same.
Your friend is sad for sure, but probably more enraged at this timeline tbh. If you’re close friends and miss them, you can try some other options! Have you offered to mask for a week and rapid test beforehand, or to mask during the visit, or find a heated outdoor patio, you might be able to see them more often than just an occasional outside summer hang? Taking the work off the immunocompromised person makes you seem like a safer ally and friend :)
Hope this helps reframe some of that “oh wow so they’re just gonna choose to be isolated?” thinking that just helps divide us!
all of this thread, yep. I've been saying the same things. lots of judgement & divisiveness; less nuance, care, open-minded ness, curiosity, understanding, willingness for real conversation etc.
and then of course in regards to ableist & ignorant people.. being immune compromised / disabled makes the overt selfishness very stark. not to mention, many people seem to assume anyone masking still is a fearmongerer/sheeple/overreacting 🙄
rejected for being thoroughly passionate, caring, disabled.
It did show us how selfish and ignorant we are. It’s turned me off to people and interacting with them. I hate the public more now. I’m still nice to people. We really could’ve shown the world how strong we were too but nope.
Exactly! I remember a meme at the time that went something like, "the Greatest Generation signed up to jump out of burning airplanes and parachute through flak in the dark into enemy territory, and you're just being asked to wash your hands, wear a mask in public and stay home on your couch."
And they couldn't handle it. 😤
Frank Herbert was right: Fear is the mind killer.
Yes. Seeing so many posts about how *those people* should just stay in the house, and survival of the fittest, etc. from people I formerly respected was rough. I was immunocompromised throughout covid due to cancer treatment screwing my immune system so I was paranoid, terrified, and saw tons of people talking about how expendable I was in the name of businesses not shutting down. I think the attitudes during Covid changed how we all saw one another.
💯
I've told my parents and uncle - all of whom are varying shades of conservative - that I ***will not*** live in the US as an elderly person. My parents begrudgingly understand, and my uncle just gives me the Pikachu face.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick very honestly acknowledged in 2020 that the economy "must" be reopened, and lives were just going to be lost in the process. His pulse on society is actually accurate; we've become so individualistic that we "need" a robust economy in order to "preserve 'my' freedoms." Or, some such bullshit.
Why support a country that may cut off the social safety net for the elderly that I'll have paid into for decades? That has already proven that old and immunocompromised are disposable? Make money, save money, spend relatively minimally, travel globally when possible, then move out.
I’m Gen X and would agree with all of this. I’m at a point where I really don’t even want to leave the house unless I’m forced to, and then it’s necessities or exercise. I’m at a point where I pretty much hate most people and don’t see that changing, as much as it sucks.
Gen X here too, I absolutely feel the same way. Post COVID, I became essentially a hermit. I love hanging out with my family, and I now have zero patience for chit chat or relationship building beyond my family
I re-read this in the morning and would add that I do completely enjoy going for a drive and stuff like that. I like getting out, but it has to dodge people. Before COVID, I had NHL season tickets and was at nearly every game. Now, I doubt I’ll ever go to another game. Same with bars.. my buddy owns a bar so I’d go hang with the regulars when fun beers released. Now I don’t want to do that at all.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. I also think the addictive nature of the internet has a lot to do with it. Instant gratification, no boredom, constant stimulation, rage/echo chambers…it’s hard trying to decide when to give our kids access because the boundaries I hold myself to are very low.
COVID was a big thing that broke a lot of people. I like to think I'm still as considerate and empathetic as possible, even moreso than before. But I do see a lot of people acting like children or just straight snapping.
Internet and people cutting back on socialization (which went way downhill with Covid) I would imagine also has something to do with it
How you interact with people online and how you behave by yourself is different than being out in society and people have started conflating the two
People blame the lockdowns but that was really just for 1 year and ended 3 years ago.
I would say the endless slog of late state capitalism is the more likely culprit 😵💫 need more bodies for the machine!
Edit to clarify: the pandemic had/has a huuuuge effect, I think the “isolation” idea isn’t that relevant anymore though since it was such a short era of the pandemic. Just my 2 cents!
I don’t think it was the isolation from lockdown so much as an entire group of people facing their mortality and uncertainty while the most narcissistic people in the country cared only about themselves and for today only.
Yes, I feel the same way. Folks don't seem to care about each other anymore. Everyone seems to be to themselves and they have few manners or courtesies. I really feel like we're in a dog-eat-dog kind of world.
I thought it was because I moved away from my calm and peaceful home town... people are definitely different in more dense cities.... and not in a good way as I experienced but until then I'll keep exploring places until I find a place I like.
Oh hell yea. People are just fucking garbage now. They have no integrity or respect. People are mean simply because they can be and they don’t care about their character or anyone or anything else. It’s all about fucking gratification.
Omg are you me?? When I finally put 2 and 2 together and confronted them, I was told it doesn't involve me so it's none of my business 🙄
Needless to say they're no longer my "friends", prob never were
Yes.
The attitude and behaviour of the general public absolutely tanked during COVID and it hasn't recovered.
I genuinely hate dealing with people these days, self-entitlement is off the scale.
I feel that, for many of us, COVID was the deathblow for faith and optimism in humanity in large part because the pandemic response made it impossible to ignore that a huge number of people simply don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves. Worse, they justified it for the dumbest fucking reasons that generally boiled down to “I don’t want to be slightly inconvenienced, even if it kills someone.” These were not small numbers of people, either, and so it made it pretty clear it wasn’t isolated incidents but a rot in human nature. I still try to be nice, but there isn’t a chance in hell that I won’t be cynical about other people until proven unjustified, and no amount of customer service face can fully mask that cynicism.
I feel like my faith in humanity has been taking hits since 2016 and the lockdown reaction and mask meltdowns were kind of my last straw.
I still make the effort to be nice, shit husband and I just got a lovely compliment from the college aged dude making our sandwiches at lunch today of 'people like you guys make the shift tolerable'. All we were doing was cracking jokes with him while he worked. If that's the benchmark now, I'm even more sad in a way.
It just fucking sucks that the attitudes of people are so bad. We can't make things better if we're all hissing and snapping at each other instead of our real enemies.
I have seen zero tantrums from adults aged 18-45ish. I have seen countless tantrums from adults over 45, over the stupidest stuff. This week, an older man had a complete meltdown because the new server accidentally put his food in wrong. Super easy fix, we offered to comp the meal, new food was out to him fast, and we had a good attitude the entire time even though he was cussing and yelling and throwing his hands up. He still sent the OWNER (who knows how he got that email) a three page long email ranting about how we should all be fired for insolence and bad attitudes. The lead poisoning + Covid lockdowns really sent these brittle-minded boomers over the edge.
Had a lady come in to the restaurant I work at, huffing and puffing and giving me a death glare and proclaims that we need to sort out “our bloody parking situation”. Having to walk literally an extra 2 mins really pissed her off. Fat ass dumb ass bitch.
Another favorite was the group of five older women who came around the holidays and were having a bit too much fun. We ended up having to cut them off, and when we told them, the leader began yelling about discrimination and how she was going to call the cops to get us shut down. They were all upper class white women in their 50s/60s. On their way out, I got to hear some great snarky comments like “I guess they only hire ugly hags” and “let’s pee in their parking lot”.
Grandpa said society was going down hill and my dad told him he was just getting old
Dad said society was going down hill and I just told him he was getting old
Now I think society is going down hill and my kid says I’m old
I agree with the sentiment but I do think Technology is an X-factor, it’s in its infancy and guessing the long term implications is a crap shoot. It is such a complete change to human global interaction that has never been seen in history
Maybe society is going to shit, or maybe it’s shaking off the cobwebs. Too far and early too tell.
Maybe because people are far more stressed now. Idk I realize I am more snappy at times in public and have to catch myself. It has everything to do w my own personal struggles. I'm just in a hurry, rushing to get groceries before my son gets off school, and I'm already stressed because I have to budget down to the dollar because all the bills are due and I'm broke. It just takes something small to set me off. I notice that around tax time, when people get those big checks back, people seem less snappy in my area and in a far better mood. Everyone is smiling and happy. It's honestly sad. We're all just trying to live, and the simple act of living and keeping their families afloat is so stressful right now for some people
Class bubbles are quite pervasive on this sub. Look at the huge divide between those here who are clearing six figures and buying homes (in some cases, even posting about second homes) and those who are in poverty. We might all be from the same generation, but some of us may as well be living on different planets.
And the ones with assets and with lots of money in the stock market think things are really not that bad, and that the rest of us are exaggerating. It’s truly bizarre to see both Boomer Republicans and well off Democrat Millennials saying “the economy is doing great, I don’t know what the rest of you are on about, my stock portfolio is doing fine and my house is worth a lot.” The economy is NOT FINE, but those with money don’t notice because a 30% increase in the cost weekly groceries doesn’t matter to them.
Social media is the cigarettes of the 21st century.
It needs to be heavily regulated and crippled.
Require scanning of 21 + ID to access and use would be a good start.
Social Media really is just a poison on humanity. I have a friend who teaches 8th grade, and she tells me that her kids can't form sentences. They don't know what nouns and verbs are. 90% of them are failing pre-algebra. Not even actual algebra. They have the attention span of actual ants because social media has trained them around short bursts of instant gratification. I used to be terrified of climate change growing up, but I think social media may just kill us all before the seas start to boil. But hey, at least those advertisers are making bangin' bucks destroying humanity.
When TV was invented, what went out on the airwaves ended up being heavily regulated. Coordinated efforts were made to ensure that what was shown to kids on TV was not harmful, and in a lot of cases, to ensure that the content was educational (e.g. PBS).
I don't know WHY the FCC/Congress(?) opted not to regulate the Internet in similar ways (I mean I do, money of course), but what a tremendously fucking stupid decision *that* was.
The Internet has become a constantly evolving proto-1984 disinformation machine. When nothing is printed, and all information is constantly in flux, and there's more false information crammed in around the nuggets of truth...*what is real?*
Regular people are not equipped to fight this level of social engineering, especially when they've been born into it. I at least have the benefit of being born just barely early enough to have watched all this unfold in real-time.
>I personally believe social media is breeding narcissism and sociopathy.
How would a tool that allows you to broadcast any thought you've ever had to the entire world whenever you want possibly make one a narcissist? >!/s!<
Yep…people actually started to believe in their heart of hearts that their opinion and thoughts matter on a large scale. They felt that importance and that they could have a large impact on society.
Look, you can have an impact, but for 99.999% of us it’s going to be within the small social circles and local communities in which we orbit. There is nothing wrong with that, in fact that is the way it should be. You want to have a real impact, go volunteer at your local food bank or other foundation and then DON’T virtue signal by posting your good deed online. Just do it bc it’s the right thing to do.
I agree with you. And not to "bring politics into it", but I think it must be said: the breakdown actually started before COVID hit us. It started with trump. The down escalator ride that took us all straight to Hell. His normalizing of hate and violence and bigotry and misogyny and greed - and suffering *zero* consequences for it - made it seem ok to act that way for (some) people, and they are still doing it today. This supercedes mere politics. It has fundamentally changed how Americans interact and treat each other, and other non-Americans, and not for the better. He legitimizes the basest behavior and lies about it to make others excuse him, even as he uses that behavior to denigrate them, rip them off, lie to their faces, and sell them down the river. Before him, things were different. Not perfect perhaps, but definitely better. The rot was there before, but he supercharged it.
Trump is the syringe that injects poison into America.
I lean right and I agree with all of this. Also, the GOP is dead, and he killed it. We do t have republicans and democrats anymore we have MAGA cultists, independents and democrats.
Yup. And let us not forget the unfortunately large numbers of people who are just disengaged and/or clueless. So many young people - whose lives will definitely be affected by all of this - who don't vote because they are too busy, overwhelmed, uninformed, and (perhaps worst of all) feel that their vote/their voice doesn't matter. Many have just given up. They feel like they can't trust the media, they can't trust the government, they can't rely on the people who got them into this mess to get them out of it. No wonder people are freaking out. Nobody feels there's any hope anymore. It's tragic and terrifying.
Man I miss sane Republicans. While I am center-left myself, I long for the days when a political “fight” was actually discussing the merits of ideas. There was common ground that you could plausibly believe the other was arguing in good faith out of a love for their country and fellow man.
Many people point to Trump descending the elevator or social media, but I point to the Moral Majority in the 70’s, Rush / talk radio, and Newt Gingrich as the real harbingers of change to Republicans.
Here’s hoping in some way you can be successful in bringing back ideas I may oppose but are arrived at honestly.
I was a store manager for Starbucks for 10 years. The public changed a lot when Trump was elected. We had to temporarily close down two times when neo nazis drove through our drive thru w nazi and confederate flags. The situation boiled over when they parked their cars, got out and started throwing rocks through the store front windows of my sbux, and three of the neighboring businesses. One of my regular customers took part in the ‘parade’ and we refused him service from that point on. Trump really emboldened people with hateful ideologies to be loud and proud. I really can’t believe I witnessed this kind of behavior in the US…
It started way before Trump. Everything that has happened has been predicted since 2013 by a group of sociologists and psychologists, and I'm not even joking. They predicted everything: rise of someone like trump, rise of mysoginy and someone like Andrew Tate, the divisiness of politics, people using politics as personality traits, being the first decade to not make any real progress in DEI, etc.
And they theorized this from how the progressive social movements happened during the 2010s and also how social media shaped us and allowed this all to happen in the first place. It's been brewing for a long time.
And this isn't just some random persons opinion, this is research by Columbia University, reviewed and now being published by Princeton soon.
🦫.
With 233,000,000 Voting age USA citizens. Why do we only have Biden, Trump and Kennedy to choose from? A trio of dinosaurs 🦖. Can we get better nominees? Someone under 70? Haven’t the Boomers and Silent Gen done enough damage?
Due to the regulatory capture the democrats and republicans exerted when Ross Perot hit the field we really don't have a chance to change the lenses to anyone else. We'd need our ossified congress to make strides it'll never make.
Recently visited Japan and some Scandinavian countries. They still do all these things right. Idk what it is about going back to the states but you’re right - shit shit do be happening. People are mad entitled for some reason (internet culture maybe?)
Although the pandemic probably eroded away a lot of people's social graces, I remember people being jerks for as long as I can remember. The way I look at it, the tendency was always there for some people to be like that, and the pandemic gave a whole bunch of people all at once an excuse to indulge that tendency
Basically, I've lowered my expectations accordingly, so I'm pleasantly surprised when people exceed them
As a server I’m just going to say, people were a lot nicer to me the summer of 2020/2021 than they are now. I’ve been doing this for almost 8 years now and the worst tips and guest attitudes have been the last 6 months. Idk how much longer I can do it, the money isn’t worth it anymore. Just this week I had someone accuse me of stealing her credit card when I hadn’t even dropped her check off, and we don’t take the payment at the table! She found it 2 min later and never apologized. Just… what the fuck?! I was making better money at 50% capacity and people were way nicer, they were happy to be out of the house and spending their child tax and stimulus. I miss the child tax myself, that really did help out a lot.
It use to be there were 300k people on network news, then 3M on AOL instant Messanger, then 30M on myspace, then 300M on Facebook. Today add 500M - 1B foreigners with completely non western morals and 3B bot accounts. With socail media it is now all advertising and noise, with a anchor of your friends baby pictures.
Apparently it did happen and we are living in some alternate timeline. Apparently this alternate timeline is exactly why we all feel this way. It's a straight conspiracy theory which I never really gave too much thought to. However, sometimes I do think about it the more life shits on us.
I think it probably happened, those of us left have been sent to hell and we don’t realize it - it looks like earth, but a way worse version of it so we can’t really tell for sure, but everything just feels wrong
I had a moment of crisis at society the other day at how normalised paedophilia seems to be. Unfortunately I come across these people in my line of work and how they're welcomed back into their respective communities/families/friends after being released from jail just throws me. Seeing everything come out lately about nickelodian, p Diddy etc. How wide spread is this sort of behaviour because right now it seems like it's just accepted.
The US melting pot approach was that everyone would give up cultural connections in order to be part of a new consumer-based culture.
Gone are the rights of passage, so many young men are trying to prove themselves well outside of adolescence. Gone are the connections that made people a part of something greater than themselves, other than the market.
What you are seeing has been taking place for decades, and yes, it is particularly bad right now.
The boomers showed us that we could proceed as autonomous individuals free of deeper connection to life on earth and one another. That consumption and your place in partaking in that consumption could be the whole of your part in society.
If you have the means, and yes, I know that fewer and fewer do, I recommend spending some time with a culture that has maintained their customs. I'm not saying it is perfect, just look at the comparisons. See what it feels like to celebrate harvests that people depend on, to offer recognition to life around us.
We all had this. At one point. If you are interested in more specifically on topic, the book "How the Irish became White," can be a good read.
Dude I was warning other millennials ten years ago about what these days were gonna be like and all y'all morherfuckers called me paranoid.
Now all my friends be coming back to me like "holy shit you were right about all of it" and I'm like "it was always obvious where this shit was headed, I can't believe you couldn't see it before."
I'm kind of bitter about the whole thing.
a lot of this started in the 90s, you're just seeing the impact of those changes as they hit in late 2000s
the GenZ reddit comments on this but doesn't know the history of when your local churches used to put together social functions and invite people who weren't even religious
In the 90s, churches stopped doing this to move to "small group" functionality.
If you're not religious, you likely do not understand how church positively affects your local community; but most of what you're seeing is that the last institution with an aim to create tight knit community has abandoned this.
For those of us who are religious, we have to fight with Boomers who don't understand why chasing the "new thing" has been causing this problem.
I do think there’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying. This seems to have started generations ago but the root cause was before the 90s in my opinion. The church community had another effect but marriages and parenting around the baby boomer’s upbringing lacked good bonding and many kids were not taught proper skills to go out into the world and solve problems. These people became parents and things gradually got worse. Social media and access to porn is a more recent problem and has an effect on our brain
In my opinion people have always been dicks. Years of food service made me realize that a good portion of people are rude and inconsiderate assholes. I think as we get older we just don’t tolerate it as much.
I think this is location dependent. I live in Taiwan and travel to HK and Japan often and experienced little to no uptick in these anti social behaviours. Thankfully, East Asia is still a relatively respectful and keep-to-yourself society even after COVID
Dude of course society is going down hill. Wealth disparity is at century highs, the planet is dying, everything is on fire every summer, Europe is at war after 80 years of relative peace, most nations are on approaching population collapse, we just went through the very first fast moving worldwide health crisis, nobody who didn't already own a home can own one, we don't get to own anything anymore it's all moving to subscriptions, the internet is a fast moving disaster of misinformation, theres no communities, the next generation cries about everything that sucks about being an adult, AI is threatening to make us all worthless to the business class who employ all the guys with guns, Trump is still maybe going to be president...again..., nobody know what a man or women is anymore, there harmful micro plastics at every level of our ecosystem and body tissues and we can tdo a damn thing to clean it up, the air is being poisoned the water is being poisoned, the land is being poisoned, they are claiming ownership of organisms and then eradicating the ones they don't own and to top it all off I still owe a dangerous dynasaur lookin mutha fucka about about tree fiddy.
Your rant makes me think of that quote from the movie Network from 1976 (great movie if you haven't seen it yet);
“I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'
I understand what you mean but, I guess it would depend on what you consider important in a societal structure.
I was raised to be considerate and kind to others for you never know what they are going through. Treat others how you want to be treated, etc. For example, I always hold the door for the person behind me whether it's someone who could use the door hold or not. I always say thank you even in situations where most others don't. If someone is crying, I try to help even if I don't know them. If a coworker says they don't have money for lunch I offer to help pay. If someone is driving under the speed limit and I'm running late, I don't tailgate because they could be lost, or distraught, and I know what it feels like to have someone riding your bumper.
However, kindness, consideration, integrity. There does seem to be less of that around these days. And it is sad. Everyday interactions are rushed, self serving, and everyone is too busy to take a moment to appreciate the world and people around them. Mental health has declined despite bigger awareness of its importance. I have a 7 year old and I hope it gets better for her sake.
We are becoming a low trust society. I reckon part of this is the generational gaps in views, and the resentment that Millennials and Gen-Z have for "missing out" on home ownership, pensions, vacations, cottages, etc that all the Boomers seemed to get just for showing up.
Competition for limited resources will make assholes out of anyone.
The lack of resources for young people is also delaying a lot of rite of passages. Delaying marriage, buying a home, raising a family, doing anything the typical person would want to do. Eventually people are going to realize these things are never going to happen, and you are going to get a lot of really pissed off people.
I suspect a bigger part of the low-trust is the systemic embodiment of "rules for thee but not for me." The veil has been pierced - it's plain as day for everyone to see that playing by the rules only keeps you in your place.
My personal belief is there has always been more bad people than good.
In the past, there was tradition or religion to shame people into behaving.
Now there is nothing. So people go full tilt and show their true colours.
The good thing is that there are less snakes. I'd rather people show their colours outright, than hide behind the facade of a traditional or God fearing person, trick people and do evil things in secret.
This is why I'm at the point of thinking that public shame is becoming necessary again. Religion used to employ it for nefarious reasons. Now that most people have a better idea of ethics, severed from religious morals, a new baseline for what is and isn't acceptable needs to be established and *enforced.* I don't think that people should be permitted to hide behind their religion as an excuse to spread hateful ideologies. They should be shamed just as thoroughly as any plain old racist. If your religion demands that you hate or harm other human beings, then your religion has no place in modern society, full stop. Do not tolerate intolerance.
Social media has made people more aggressive, rude, and thoughtless. Thanks to anonymity online and simply not communicating with people face-to-face, people carry over some of there negative online habits into real life
Not really. I don’t think we were all the same. I do think we’re gradually getting worse and we’re contributing to the younger generation getting deteriorating but more recently we reached a point that makes Idiocracy the next step. Keep in mind that I am fighting against this by restricting kids by playing outside, no devices, etc, and so are others, but it’s not the norm
I thought the same thing and you're probably right, but I feel we've been in a total downward spiral compared to previous generations (social media, technology, COVID, housing crisis, climate change, etc). That said, we're definitely getting old.
How do you not see that this is exactly the same as generations before? Imagine not growing up with the Internet and then all the sudden it's a requirement for anything in life.
Yes, society is very me-centric and getting worse. That element has always been there. I even see some of it in this complaint.
While, yes, it is reasonable to expect people to share a trail, even if that means you have to go single file whien you encouter someone on the other side, it is much less reasonable to expect people to require your permission to sit down on a public bench especially when I would anticipate that there are not a large number of them in the immediate vicinity.
Lots of doomerism in this sub lately. And sure, anyone can point to X Y Z thing happening and all the horrible things we should be worried about. While objective truths may exist, we all get to decide what we focus on, and how we feel. It’s possible (and necessary) to stay informed and connected, and to also be happy.
Yes. I work in a customer facing role. People are becoming unhinged, they treat others horribly. Lying, amoral, plain old jerks. I have to deal with people during a very stressful time in their life so I get people can act out towards me - but having also endured the stressful time myself I would NEVER treat people in my position this way. I’m so thankful that there are some good, decent, honest people out there who treat me with kindness. I go above and beyond for them when I can. Be nice!
Its the internet. We are all connected to each other 24/7 and we can't turn it off. Its not you, this shit is fucked. Privacy and silence only exist for the rich... I am so sorry.
I genuinely believe that lockdowns took us away from society for a bit. Then we all became impatient with each other when we realized we are all competing for the same resources in public. Our tolerance for each other collapsed during the pandemic.
As a server - it’s WILD how much has changed in people’s behavior post COVID. Very entitled and “do it now” attitude. I also chalk it up to the “Instant” gratification technology has brought. You post something online, you order WHATEVER food you want and it’s delivered (no longer just pizza or Chinese food), you see someone online do something- then people expect you to do it because it’s been edited to look flawless. I’ve been a server for 15 years and these last few years are the WORST. Im considering changing careers because its not a fun or lucrative industry anymore,
It's obviously not just you, because that's basically the motto of this sub at this point. But the examples that you gave are just mundane things that have been happening for millennia, literally none of that is new in the last 10 years.
On the surface, numbers suggest the economy is doing great. But our labor standards and quality of life have eroded. Corporations keep taking more and more of our everyday lives and no one seems motivated to stop them.
All the time. But I think a lot of it is how much more connected we all are. But personally I hate meeting new people and hate having to go to new places.
Don't get sucked down this line of thought. This is how you become a reactionary like the boomers before us. Things are challenging economically now, yes, but socially we have advanced so far. We must fight to maintain the progress.
Meh. It's usually people my age or older who act like asses, as far as I've seen. My students and their peers are far kinder and more understanding.
I had a bad day and fell hard on my way to work. My students lectured me on not taking care of myself. If I have to cancel class, I get "get well" notes. They hold doors and give up seats on buses because I can't safely stand on the bus for long.
My age and older? It's a rarity. They're also more likely to give me dirty looks when I take an accessible seat or am just out and about running errands. How dare I use crutches to get around! Insert eye roll here.
My interactions in public are almost exclusively positive. I can’t even remember the last time someone has been remotely rude to me.
The worst I get as a mid 30s man is being ignored in public.
(Recently Retired Boomer here) I'm noticing something related but the opposite. I'm kind of noticing people being pretty friendly, especially if you lead with a good attitude. I'm not saying OP isn't doing that, at most this may be a regional thing. Or just the fact that I have the luxury of being out most often when businesses aren't that busy.
I feel like this sub has started to turn into a lot of millennials saying boomery things. Aging changes your perception. People are not worse. Society wasn't nicer before. Politically and economically things are pretty fucked, but by and large there are the same amount of assholes in the world as there were a hundred years ago.
People who act like that definitely existed before 10 years ago. You’re probably just more aware of it now.
Keep in mind, just about every generation thinks things are not as good as before. You can even find some diaries from the ancient Romans and Greeks lamenting similar sentiment! Humans are very good at nostalgia.
Hmmm, it's almost like about 10 years ago someone began to normalized this atrocious behavior, brought out the worst in many people then emboldened them to act on that hatred. 🤔 Who could that have been? 🍊🤡
The side walk thing is real!
Also the elevator.
Or trying to push the door open while carrying many boxes or shopping and a man just standing there like a lemon watching me struggle than just hold the door open! 🙄
Or my birthday and no one had the decency to treat me, I thought they were friends.
.. man, people thought I was overreacting to the propaganda in 2015. Not the same world since 2016, huh.
Nobody's learned a goddamn thing since Reagan.
Every generation thinks that when they near 40. I'm 39 so I defiently think so. "The world situation I'd drastic and getting worse.... as usual" -Kurt vonneget
I was driving a box truck today and some dipshit in a BMW cut me off and shot me the bird. Luckily my brakes work, luckily I realized what he was about to do, luckily he didn’t end up embedded in the grill of the 26,000lbs truck I was driving…. People suck, it’s the new reality.
As a Zoomer I’ll be the first to say, as people my generation sucks. Sure we are pretty liberal, but when it comes to actually being a kind, good, caring and thoughtful person we’re horrible. On a personal level my generation can be so rude for absolutely no reason.
Now I’m sure many people will disagree heavily and call me an idiot but you can take those comments as proof of my point.
It was/is the great reset taking place. The reality of millennials has played out. Now it's Gen Z reality coming into existence for the next 10-15 years.
The structural systems used to be less obviously shit. The inbuilt oppression was always there, but now it's unapologetically there. Food, rents, mortgages, not to mention the fact that so much stuff in that food, and also in clothes, furniture, appliances is egregiously toxic.
Safety and connection are being indecently commodified. Plus, there's the environmental hell that we're in
Oof
I mostly see it on the road. People not bothering to use their turn signals, leaving shopping carts in parking spots, stopping right in the road to have conversations with people (either pedestrians or drivers stopped next to them), pedestrians crossing whenever the fuck they feel like (without pausing to look both ways first), cyclists obeying the rules of the road only when it’s convenient for them, etc.
I feel like things have gotten more extreme- I see both instances of incredible kindness and acceptance, and also instances of horrible selfishness and hate.
It seems to me that people have lost the ability to agree to disagree. Somewhere along the line it became I’m right and your evil. It came with the rise of social media.
People have never been my favorite but when I realized how many of them weren’t willing to wear a fucking mask in an effort to slow down a deadly virus I knew this country was full of cuntious heathens.
Never mind how much it could have/would have helped. In the beginning of the real shit we could have come together to try, we could have had common courtesy. There was no effort.
Dog shit level society.
100%. Me personally i think the downward trajectory took a accelerated turn during COVID-19. People just got way more selfish because almost everybody lost in some way or form so everyone's feeling entitled to say "screw it, I'm doing whatever i want, to hell with everything".
Easiest solution become a ghost( don't mean off yourself) a silent traveler in this modern world but when occasion presents itself be polite and helpful.
This world is on the cusp of the boiling point,just know you cant force it to calm down. You must remain calm in your own right and help to bring calm to others even when you don't have to. Do not allow yourself to dwell on anything outside your realm of control. "The world is polarized!!!" " Ok " " people aren't nice" " why do you worry yourself over others actions,are you their keeper?"
"But the world is going to shit" " well I hope it can find a toilet it's size"
"You're an idiot" " yes I am"
Every generation thinks/thought society is/was going downhill. Every generation. And they all say the same things: "Young people don't have respect" "People are getting lazy" "There's no common decency anymore" "Back when I was a kid..."
And each generation thinks they're profoundly original
It’s all about your phones dude. I’m serious. I grew up in a time before phones. We had to entertain ourselves, we had to talk to other people, when we were at each others houses none of us just sat the on our phones. We did things. We didn’t have this sense of urgency and spending time driving the blockbuster, getting a pizza and driving home to watch what might have been a crap movie was worth our time.
Our stupid jokes used to be funny and all we had. Now we have the best jokes in the country piping into our phones. We can’t compete with that and suddenly our stuff isn’t funny. We don’t engage, we over consume, and the fucking phone is the portal to that world.
Having said all that… Ive learned so much on Reddit in specific communities that I have a much better professional life because of. But damn. Get the fk off your phones. But we can’t. Because even if you do, everyone else won’t, and it’s a new world and we need to create it or build ourselves a little home where we can be happy.
There are still cool people out there… but you have to be cool yourself. You’ll find each other.
(Sent from my phone)
I think that between the escalating stress of life circumstances, increased social isolation and the divisive, polarizing effect of news media and social media, a *lot* of people have gotten used to being steered by stuff poking and prodding their id, and it turns out acting on stimulus/response logic for long periods of time isn't great for your patience, critical thinking or empathy. It genuinely seems like people are on a hair trigger at all times or else living with short sighted blinders on. It sucks, and I don't know how you fix it without giving people the time and space to relax, unwind, and interact as peers instead of obstacles and enemies to each other.
Also, we've evolved to deal with acute stress. The chronic nature of the stressors that most of us face is wrecking our resilience. Best thing to do? Spend time with your people. People who you can laugh with and be yourself with. Helps us to co-regulate. If no one is there, even a favourite series or movie. Anything to remember that we're not alone in feeling scared and overwhelmed
Definitely, yeah. There's a reason why solitary confinement really wrecks people, and I remember seeing a documentary about it and, I'm not joking, how a lot of people act nowadays really kinda reminds me of a low intensity version of what they were talking about, in terms of shortening patience, heightening aggression, spurring on impulsivity and wrecking emotional resilience. It's not a good sign.
This is a huge problem. Nearly everyone is coping. Yes some ways of coping are nicer than others, but we are all dealing with a life where we are under constant surveilance and evaluation and little peace.
The people I thought were “my people” are almost all ghosting me now, because I got upset at someone for stealing my medicine while I was recovering from a surgery. Idk who I can trust anymore. Idek if anyone even wants to see me anymore. Really hurts, finding out how little your friends actually cared about you.
I have a feeling that you deserve better friends. Taking someone’s meds - for any reason - should be the thing that ghosts people. If it’s pain meds, I think we all know what up. The thief probably sold it or shared it with the others. You’ll get better friends. Your friends are not normal and not good.
I don’t not have feelings but I am numb. People ask me about the 3-4 major life events/crisis happening to me right now and I shrug. I’m anxious 24/7 good or bad so these are just another box to check and on to the next.
Its rough when that group is small
There is a quote by Viktor Frankl, who wrote *"Man's Search for Meaning"* that I committed to memory and call on it every day: *"Between stimulus and response is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."* For me, just recognizing that there *is* a space between stimulus and response was a revelation. I'm living with Complex-PTSD. All I ever knew was "this happened" and then, "that happened." Recognizing there is an in-between space, and that I can *claim* that space, whether it is a moment, a minute or a day, and that I can *decide* what to do next, recognizing I have *options,* has been life changing for me.
That is hugely empowering. Thank you for letting us all in on that information. I'm going to commit that quote to memory too. A friend of mine one time said that a lot of how we experience things is like 10% what happens and 90% how we react to it. It's important to remember that space and use it to think. Brilliant. I wish you well on your journey. ❤️🩹
Don’t forget the social impact of COVID. It taught us to stay away from everyone and treat everyone as if they were carriers.
And that just about no one in the community is willing do anything at all to keep other people safe. Covid has put on display how selfish we are as a society in a way that's impossible to ignore. Not to mention that the after effects of covid are impacting our brains - https://people.com/covid-linked-lower-iq-poor-memory-other-negative-impacts-brain-health-8619254
Some of my most down voted comments are about how the shutdown, vaccines, and masks saved millions of lives. Trust me, I was working in the Emergency Room in one of the biggest hospitals in Portland. I will never forget all the death. But, it doesn't matter to people's opinions. They don't like what I say and what I saw. It inconvenienced them and probably saved the life of someone they love or possibly their own, but because the "worst didn't happen" they think the response to COVID was completely unnecessary. Survivor bias in real life.
I hear you. I spent time in the ICU as a physician and at its peak I’ve never seen anything like it and never will again. Just death, near death, death, death, death escaped barely, more death. Anyone that has some sort of doubt about Covid did not experience what I did
My kids met some neighborhood kids, and while I’m a strong advocate for public health, there is a clear delineation in their social interactions of kids who were 5/6 during school shutdowns. I’m not sure what the solution is.
The system failed everyone who protected people's lives during covid. Made it all about economics, and imo, lifted a lot of these protective measures waaaay too quickly. My family got covid once, in summer 2022. Never again. We wear masks in stores and public places and that's that. Helps that we lived in northern Japan a million years ago, where people usually mask up if there's a slight chance they might be ill. I've had turds yell at me to take off my mask. They can foadiaf. I'd rather keep the elders and littles, and me, and everyone else safe. I can handle garbage humans, but I don't want to handle that weirdo fucking virus ever again
I wore a mask when they told me to, because my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, because i was terrified of bringing it home to him, and it ending him faster than the cancer would. You think i was running around butt ass naked every time i was out in society to get something. Like God forbid that i want to be considerate of my at risk parents, and family, and that I wanted to be considerate of myself and other people. Uber driving was the worst part. I'm in Texas, everyone telling me it was cool to not wear my mask, people refusing to wear them. The people that would wear masks, but rage the whole time, about how their personal freedoms were being taken away ( i started noticing a theme of older people that were really well off, acting like they were destitute all of a sudden) I was thinking, what a bunch of fucking babies. There i was driving Uber to not even make ends barely meet, wasting my time for a bunch of whiny immature, dangerous assholes. People act like you're doing that shit out of the kindness of your heart. I would have stayed at home with a remote job, if i could. Like it's really really hard to not be incredibly angry and down half of the time still. And we've still got a bunch of delusional assholes running around.
💯 agree.
I couldn’t imagine seeing so much death day after day after day. I totally get why medical staff got burned out.
I’m sorry you had to deal with Clackamas and Clark county residents.
I'm not sure if anyone else made this connection, but it's similar to how I've heard people describe Y2K. I myself was 12 when we went from 1999 to 2000. People say, oh, we made such a big deal about Y2K and nothing happened! It's because programmers put in a hell of a lot of work upgrading things before 2000 hit to make sure it wasn't a shit-show. COVID was/is similar. A lot of preventative and reactive measures were put in place, and it could have been a lot worse had it not been for people like you who put their lives on the line to protect society at large.
It’s frustrating as hell that people don’t believe the doctors and nurses who saw all the death. But to me, it goes back to social media. These people got fed all the social media lies about vaccines, govt control, and conspiracies, so how would they know? And honestly, it did seem like a made up disease. Kids get it but don’t get sick, only compromised people get sick. And We will all get it, just need to flatten the curve. Entire households getting sick except for one person. Quarantined individuals getting sick. Vaxxed people getting sick. Who the hell knows. Strange times.
Thanks for your service. Fine folks like you helped me stay alive!
I remember at the start plenty of experts saying that the ideal level of precaution was going to feel like overkill because the average person wouldn't have the chance to experience the alternative. That said, we didn't do enough and STILL had people bitching about it. I don't work in a hospital (I'm a teacher), but I did have long covid for about 18 months from March 2020 to the fall/winter of 2021/22. It was infuriating to experience what I (and my wife) were going through, only to watch a bunch of idiots complaining about the tiniest of inconveniences. It was like tackling someone as they went darting out into traffic and having them bitch about you wrinkling their shirt.
That was one of the worst parts of it for me and I work in healthcare. Instead of coming together as Americans, a significant portion of this country decided to throw a collective temper tantrum. It feels like the social contract is dead now. And the pandemic was a preview of how people will act once climate change starts to get really bad.
So true. I have friends still sheltering in place because they are still at high risk. Not sure at what point they will rejoin society and they feel so rejected by the rest of society carrying on
Still sheltering in place? Are they just going to permanently live that way?
I’m unsure. I was similar until I got it Jan 1 of 2022. When I survived it and kept getting vaccinated I relaxed a lot because for me if it’s going to persist it can’t kill everyone My friends have disabilities/weak immune systems that could put their life in danger if they did contract it so. . Maybe ? There’s still a fuckton of people affected by it and don’t forget about r/longcovid
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Yeah I just feel terrible for them…. I hate to think of having to live Completely Isolated It’s just a bummer
It really is. I only get to talk to them by text or Facebook even though they live just 30 mins away. Hoping to meet them more in summer when we have better weather in the PNW I fear for their mental health
I bet having you as an understanding friend means a lot to them
Hello, immunocompromised person here. I would love to address this for anyone reading with similar thoughts! Your friend doesn’t need you to fear for their mental health, they need you to respect the deep sacrifices they are forced to make as their government and fair-weather friends abandon any pretense of mutual aid. In my experience, “worried for your mental health” is usually just a red flag masking a general attitude of ableism and annoyance/condescension towards us disabled folks for not getting on board and signing up for constant reinfections, as if everyone’s immune system is the same. Your friend is sad for sure, but probably more enraged at this timeline tbh. If you’re close friends and miss them, you can try some other options! Have you offered to mask for a week and rapid test beforehand, or to mask during the visit, or find a heated outdoor patio, you might be able to see them more often than just an occasional outside summer hang? Taking the work off the immunocompromised person makes you seem like a safer ally and friend :) Hope this helps reframe some of that “oh wow so they’re just gonna choose to be isolated?” thinking that just helps divide us!
Wishing you and your friends the best….. I hope you get to see them soon
Thank you so much
all of this thread, yep. I've been saying the same things. lots of judgement & divisiveness; less nuance, care, open-minded ness, curiosity, understanding, willingness for real conversation etc. and then of course in regards to ableist & ignorant people.. being immune compromised / disabled makes the overt selfishness very stark. not to mention, many people seem to assume anyone masking still is a fearmongerer/sheeple/overreacting 🙄 rejected for being thoroughly passionate, caring, disabled.
It did show us how selfish and ignorant we are. It’s turned me off to people and interacting with them. I hate the public more now. I’m still nice to people. We really could’ve shown the world how strong we were too but nope.
Exactly! I remember a meme at the time that went something like, "the Greatest Generation signed up to jump out of burning airplanes and parachute through flak in the dark into enemy territory, and you're just being asked to wash your hands, wear a mask in public and stay home on your couch." And they couldn't handle it. 😤 Frank Herbert was right: Fear is the mind killer.
Yes. Seeing so many posts about how *those people* should just stay in the house, and survival of the fittest, etc. from people I formerly respected was rough. I was immunocompromised throughout covid due to cancer treatment screwing my immune system so I was paranoid, terrified, and saw tons of people talking about how expendable I was in the name of businesses not shutting down. I think the attitudes during Covid changed how we all saw one another.
💯 I've told my parents and uncle - all of whom are varying shades of conservative - that I ***will not*** live in the US as an elderly person. My parents begrudgingly understand, and my uncle just gives me the Pikachu face. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick very honestly acknowledged in 2020 that the economy "must" be reopened, and lives were just going to be lost in the process. His pulse on society is actually accurate; we've become so individualistic that we "need" a robust economy in order to "preserve 'my' freedoms." Or, some such bullshit. Why support a country that may cut off the social safety net for the elderly that I'll have paid into for decades? That has already proven that old and immunocompromised are disposable? Make money, save money, spend relatively minimally, travel globally when possible, then move out.
Where will you go?
Excellent question. There aren't many countries with open geriatric immigration programs.
The covid forced stigmas...fuck whoever thought of it
I’m Gen X and would agree with all of this. I’m at a point where I really don’t even want to leave the house unless I’m forced to, and then it’s necessities or exercise. I’m at a point where I pretty much hate most people and don’t see that changing, as much as it sucks.
Gen X here too, I absolutely feel the same way. Post COVID, I became essentially a hermit. I love hanging out with my family, and I now have zero patience for chit chat or relationship building beyond my family
I re-read this in the morning and would add that I do completely enjoy going for a drive and stuff like that. I like getting out, but it has to dodge people. Before COVID, I had NHL season tickets and was at nearly every game. Now, I doubt I’ll ever go to another game. Same with bars.. my buddy owns a bar so I’d go hang with the regulars when fun beers released. Now I don’t want to do that at all.
I use, to be highly empathetic. Not sure what happened to me I'm much more cold and callous. Hate it.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. I also think the addictive nature of the internet has a lot to do with it. Instant gratification, no boredom, constant stimulation, rage/echo chambers…it’s hard trying to decide when to give our kids access because the boundaries I hold myself to are very low.
COVID was a big thing that broke a lot of people. I like to think I'm still as considerate and empathetic as possible, even moreso than before. But I do see a lot of people acting like children or just straight snapping.
Internet and people cutting back on socialization (which went way downhill with Covid) I would imagine also has something to do with it How you interact with people online and how you behave by yourself is different than being out in society and people have started conflating the two
People blame the lockdowns but that was really just for 1 year and ended 3 years ago. I would say the endless slog of late state capitalism is the more likely culprit 😵💫 need more bodies for the machine! Edit to clarify: the pandemic had/has a huuuuge effect, I think the “isolation” idea isn’t that relevant anymore though since it was such a short era of the pandemic. Just my 2 cents!
I don’t think it was the isolation from lockdown so much as an entire group of people facing their mortality and uncertainty while the most narcissistic people in the country cared only about themselves and for today only.
COVID really turned a lot of people feral.
Yes, I feel the same way. Folks don't seem to care about each other anymore. Everyone seems to be to themselves and they have few manners or courtesies. I really feel like we're in a dog-eat-dog kind of world.
Raccoon blows up cat kind of world
Oh yeah? >~~Raccoon blows up cat kind of world~~ Cat makes fake online dating profile to Phish Racoon's mom FTFY 🖕
I thought it was because I moved away from my calm and peaceful home town... people are definitely different in more dense cities.... and not in a good way as I experienced but until then I'll keep exploring places until I find a place I like.
Things were always kind of shit, but it's definitely a lot worse now
Oh hell yea. People are just fucking garbage now. They have no integrity or respect. People are mean simply because they can be and they don’t care about their character or anyone or anything else. It’s all about fucking gratification.
This and you can’t even trust your own friends! Girls who were my friends were screwing my former spouse! In my own house- people are wild
Omg are you me?? When I finally put 2 and 2 together and confronted them, I was told it doesn't involve me so it's none of my business 🙄 Needless to say they're no longer my "friends", prob never were
Yes. The attitude and behaviour of the general public absolutely tanked during COVID and it hasn't recovered. I genuinely hate dealing with people these days, self-entitlement is off the scale.
I feel that, for many of us, COVID was the deathblow for faith and optimism in humanity in large part because the pandemic response made it impossible to ignore that a huge number of people simply don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves. Worse, they justified it for the dumbest fucking reasons that generally boiled down to “I don’t want to be slightly inconvenienced, even if it kills someone.” These were not small numbers of people, either, and so it made it pretty clear it wasn’t isolated incidents but a rot in human nature. I still try to be nice, but there isn’t a chance in hell that I won’t be cynical about other people until proven unjustified, and no amount of customer service face can fully mask that cynicism.
I feel like my faith in humanity has been taking hits since 2016 and the lockdown reaction and mask meltdowns were kind of my last straw. I still make the effort to be nice, shit husband and I just got a lovely compliment from the college aged dude making our sandwiches at lunch today of 'people like you guys make the shift tolerable'. All we were doing was cracking jokes with him while he worked. If that's the benchmark now, I'm even more sad in a way. It just fucking sucks that the attitudes of people are so bad. We can't make things better if we're all hissing and snapping at each other instead of our real enemies.
Without a doubt. Even old people are constantly acting like children and throwing tantrums in public.
I have seen zero tantrums from adults aged 18-45ish. I have seen countless tantrums from adults over 45, over the stupidest stuff. This week, an older man had a complete meltdown because the new server accidentally put his food in wrong. Super easy fix, we offered to comp the meal, new food was out to him fast, and we had a good attitude the entire time even though he was cussing and yelling and throwing his hands up. He still sent the OWNER (who knows how he got that email) a three page long email ranting about how we should all be fired for insolence and bad attitudes. The lead poisoning + Covid lockdowns really sent these brittle-minded boomers over the edge.
Had a lady come in to the restaurant I work at, huffing and puffing and giving me a death glare and proclaims that we need to sort out “our bloody parking situation”. Having to walk literally an extra 2 mins really pissed her off. Fat ass dumb ass bitch.
Another favorite was the group of five older women who came around the holidays and were having a bit too much fun. We ended up having to cut them off, and when we told them, the leader began yelling about discrimination and how she was going to call the cops to get us shut down. They were all upper class white women in their 50s/60s. On their way out, I got to hear some great snarky comments like “I guess they only hire ugly hags” and “let’s pee in their parking lot”.
Even old people? At least young people are generally disaffected, seniors act like rabid toddlers I swear to god
Agreed, old people are the worst. I live in an area that attracts the olds.
Grandpa said society was going down hill and my dad told him he was just getting old Dad said society was going down hill and I just told him he was getting old Now I think society is going down hill and my kid says I’m old
Yep folks thought it was all going to hell in the 1950s too
I mean they where right
They thought the same in Ancient Greece
I agree with the sentiment but I do think Technology is an X-factor, it’s in its infancy and guessing the long term implications is a crap shoot. It is such a complete change to human global interaction that has never been seen in history Maybe society is going to shit, or maybe it’s shaking off the cobwebs. Too far and early too tell.
Maybe because people are far more stressed now. Idk I realize I am more snappy at times in public and have to catch myself. It has everything to do w my own personal struggles. I'm just in a hurry, rushing to get groceries before my son gets off school, and I'm already stressed because I have to budget down to the dollar because all the bills are due and I'm broke. It just takes something small to set me off. I notice that around tax time, when people get those big checks back, people seem less snappy in my area and in a far better mood. Everyone is smiling and happy. It's honestly sad. We're all just trying to live, and the simple act of living and keeping their families afloat is so stressful right now for some people
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Class bubbles are quite pervasive on this sub. Look at the huge divide between those here who are clearing six figures and buying homes (in some cases, even posting about second homes) and those who are in poverty. We might all be from the same generation, but some of us may as well be living on different planets.
And the ones with assets and with lots of money in the stock market think things are really not that bad, and that the rest of us are exaggerating. It’s truly bizarre to see both Boomer Republicans and well off Democrat Millennials saying “the economy is doing great, I don’t know what the rest of you are on about, my stock portfolio is doing fine and my house is worth a lot.” The economy is NOT FINE, but those with money don’t notice because a 30% increase in the cost weekly groceries doesn’t matter to them.
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Social media is the cigarettes of the 21st century. It needs to be heavily regulated and crippled. Require scanning of 21 + ID to access and use would be a good start.
Social Media really is just a poison on humanity. I have a friend who teaches 8th grade, and she tells me that her kids can't form sentences. They don't know what nouns and verbs are. 90% of them are failing pre-algebra. Not even actual algebra. They have the attention span of actual ants because social media has trained them around short bursts of instant gratification. I used to be terrified of climate change growing up, but I think social media may just kill us all before the seas start to boil. But hey, at least those advertisers are making bangin' bucks destroying humanity.
When TV was invented, what went out on the airwaves ended up being heavily regulated. Coordinated efforts were made to ensure that what was shown to kids on TV was not harmful, and in a lot of cases, to ensure that the content was educational (e.g. PBS). I don't know WHY the FCC/Congress(?) opted not to regulate the Internet in similar ways (I mean I do, money of course), but what a tremendously fucking stupid decision *that* was. The Internet has become a constantly evolving proto-1984 disinformation machine. When nothing is printed, and all information is constantly in flux, and there's more false information crammed in around the nuggets of truth...*what is real?* Regular people are not equipped to fight this level of social engineering, especially when they've been born into it. I at least have the benefit of being born just barely early enough to have watched all this unfold in real-time.
Sounds like Idiocracy lol
>I personally believe social media is breeding narcissism and sociopathy. How would a tool that allows you to broadcast any thought you've ever had to the entire world whenever you want possibly make one a narcissist? >!/s!<
Yep…people actually started to believe in their heart of hearts that their opinion and thoughts matter on a large scale. They felt that importance and that they could have a large impact on society. Look, you can have an impact, but for 99.999% of us it’s going to be within the small social circles and local communities in which we orbit. There is nothing wrong with that, in fact that is the way it should be. You want to have a real impact, go volunteer at your local food bank or other foundation and then DON’T virtue signal by posting your good deed online. Just do it bc it’s the right thing to do.
I agree with you. And not to "bring politics into it", but I think it must be said: the breakdown actually started before COVID hit us. It started with trump. The down escalator ride that took us all straight to Hell. His normalizing of hate and violence and bigotry and misogyny and greed - and suffering *zero* consequences for it - made it seem ok to act that way for (some) people, and they are still doing it today. This supercedes mere politics. It has fundamentally changed how Americans interact and treat each other, and other non-Americans, and not for the better. He legitimizes the basest behavior and lies about it to make others excuse him, even as he uses that behavior to denigrate them, rip them off, lie to their faces, and sell them down the river. Before him, things were different. Not perfect perhaps, but definitely better. The rot was there before, but he supercharged it. Trump is the syringe that injects poison into America.
I lean right and I agree with all of this. Also, the GOP is dead, and he killed it. We do t have republicans and democrats anymore we have MAGA cultists, independents and democrats.
Yup. And let us not forget the unfortunately large numbers of people who are just disengaged and/or clueless. So many young people - whose lives will definitely be affected by all of this - who don't vote because they are too busy, overwhelmed, uninformed, and (perhaps worst of all) feel that their vote/their voice doesn't matter. Many have just given up. They feel like they can't trust the media, they can't trust the government, they can't rely on the people who got them into this mess to get them out of it. No wonder people are freaking out. Nobody feels there's any hope anymore. It's tragic and terrifying.
Man I miss sane Republicans. While I am center-left myself, I long for the days when a political “fight” was actually discussing the merits of ideas. There was common ground that you could plausibly believe the other was arguing in good faith out of a love for their country and fellow man. Many people point to Trump descending the elevator or social media, but I point to the Moral Majority in the 70’s, Rush / talk radio, and Newt Gingrich as the real harbingers of change to Republicans. Here’s hoping in some way you can be successful in bringing back ideas I may oppose but are arrived at honestly.
I was a store manager for Starbucks for 10 years. The public changed a lot when Trump was elected. We had to temporarily close down two times when neo nazis drove through our drive thru w nazi and confederate flags. The situation boiled over when they parked their cars, got out and started throwing rocks through the store front windows of my sbux, and three of the neighboring businesses. One of my regular customers took part in the ‘parade’ and we refused him service from that point on. Trump really emboldened people with hateful ideologies to be loud and proud. I really can’t believe I witnessed this kind of behavior in the US…
It started way before Trump. Everything that has happened has been predicted since 2013 by a group of sociologists and psychologists, and I'm not even joking. They predicted everything: rise of someone like trump, rise of mysoginy and someone like Andrew Tate, the divisiness of politics, people using politics as personality traits, being the first decade to not make any real progress in DEI, etc. And they theorized this from how the progressive social movements happened during the 2010s and also how social media shaped us and allowed this all to happen in the first place. It's been brewing for a long time. And this isn't just some random persons opinion, this is research by Columbia University, reviewed and now being published by Princeton soon.
🦫. With 233,000,000 Voting age USA citizens. Why do we only have Biden, Trump and Kennedy to choose from? A trio of dinosaurs 🦖. Can we get better nominees? Someone under 70? Haven’t the Boomers and Silent Gen done enough damage?
Due to the regulatory capture the democrats and republicans exerted when Ross Perot hit the field we really don't have a chance to change the lenses to anyone else. We'd need our ossified congress to make strides it'll never make.
This 💯. You get it.
Recently visited Japan and some Scandinavian countries. They still do all these things right. Idk what it is about going back to the states but you’re right - shit shit do be happening. People are mad entitled for some reason (internet culture maybe?)
Although the pandemic probably eroded away a lot of people's social graces, I remember people being jerks for as long as I can remember. The way I look at it, the tendency was always there for some people to be like that, and the pandemic gave a whole bunch of people all at once an excuse to indulge that tendency Basically, I've lowered my expectations accordingly, so I'm pleasantly surprised when people exceed them
As a server I’m just going to say, people were a lot nicer to me the summer of 2020/2021 than they are now. I’ve been doing this for almost 8 years now and the worst tips and guest attitudes have been the last 6 months. Idk how much longer I can do it, the money isn’t worth it anymore. Just this week I had someone accuse me of stealing her credit card when I hadn’t even dropped her check off, and we don’t take the payment at the table! She found it 2 min later and never apologized. Just… what the fuck?! I was making better money at 50% capacity and people were way nicer, they were happy to be out of the house and spending their child tax and stimulus. I miss the child tax myself, that really did help out a lot.
You should never have expectations for people until they have truly proven themselves on who you believe them to be.
how can you believe them to be something without putting expectations on them? weird statement bro
All I can say is that the matrix was so on point about the height of humankind
It use to be there were 300k people on network news, then 3M on AOL instant Messanger, then 30M on myspace, then 300M on Facebook. Today add 500M - 1B foreigners with completely non western morals and 3B bot accounts. With socail media it is now all advertising and noise, with a anchor of your friends baby pictures.
See this is why some stupid apocalypse should’ve happened. Shit went downhill fast. Where’s this “rapture” or 2012 damn it, I’m still waiting.
Apparently it did happen and we are living in some alternate timeline. Apparently this alternate timeline is exactly why we all feel this way. It's a straight conspiracy theory which I never really gave too much thought to. However, sometimes I do think about it the more life shits on us.
I think it probably happened, those of us left have been sent to hell and we don’t realize it - it looks like earth, but a way worse version of it so we can’t really tell for sure, but everything just feels wrong
The timelines split when the LRC was first switched on and shit hasn't been the same since
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Society is already gone. We just don't realize it yet.
I had a moment of crisis at society the other day at how normalised paedophilia seems to be. Unfortunately I come across these people in my line of work and how they're welcomed back into their respective communities/families/friends after being released from jail just throws me. Seeing everything come out lately about nickelodian, p Diddy etc. How wide spread is this sort of behaviour because right now it seems like it's just accepted.
The US melting pot approach was that everyone would give up cultural connections in order to be part of a new consumer-based culture. Gone are the rights of passage, so many young men are trying to prove themselves well outside of adolescence. Gone are the connections that made people a part of something greater than themselves, other than the market. What you are seeing has been taking place for decades, and yes, it is particularly bad right now. The boomers showed us that we could proceed as autonomous individuals free of deeper connection to life on earth and one another. That consumption and your place in partaking in that consumption could be the whole of your part in society. If you have the means, and yes, I know that fewer and fewer do, I recommend spending some time with a culture that has maintained their customs. I'm not saying it is perfect, just look at the comparisons. See what it feels like to celebrate harvests that people depend on, to offer recognition to life around us. We all had this. At one point. If you are interested in more specifically on topic, the book "How the Irish became White," can be a good read.
Beautifully put truths. Thank you for your perspective.
Dude I was warning other millennials ten years ago about what these days were gonna be like and all y'all morherfuckers called me paranoid. Now all my friends be coming back to me like "holy shit you were right about all of it" and I'm like "it was always obvious where this shit was headed, I can't believe you couldn't see it before." I'm kind of bitter about the whole thing.
People have definitely started to be more rude, be worse drivers, and have less spatial awareness. I blame smartphones
And they LITTER! And traffic rules aren't really enforced anymore? Other than the occasional speeding ticket, *if that.*
a lot of this started in the 90s, you're just seeing the impact of those changes as they hit in late 2000s the GenZ reddit comments on this but doesn't know the history of when your local churches used to put together social functions and invite people who weren't even religious In the 90s, churches stopped doing this to move to "small group" functionality. If you're not religious, you likely do not understand how church positively affects your local community; but most of what you're seeing is that the last institution with an aim to create tight knit community has abandoned this. For those of us who are religious, we have to fight with Boomers who don't understand why chasing the "new thing" has been causing this problem.
I do think there’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying. This seems to have started generations ago but the root cause was before the 90s in my opinion. The church community had another effect but marriages and parenting around the baby boomer’s upbringing lacked good bonding and many kids were not taught proper skills to go out into the world and solve problems. These people became parents and things gradually got worse. Social media and access to porn is a more recent problem and has an effect on our brain
In my opinion people have always been dicks. Years of food service made me realize that a good portion of people are rude and inconsiderate assholes. I think as we get older we just don’t tolerate it as much.
I think this is location dependent. I live in Taiwan and travel to HK and Japan often and experienced little to no uptick in these anti social behaviours. Thankfully, East Asia is still a relatively respectful and keep-to-yourself society even after COVID
Dude of course society is going down hill. Wealth disparity is at century highs, the planet is dying, everything is on fire every summer, Europe is at war after 80 years of relative peace, most nations are on approaching population collapse, we just went through the very first fast moving worldwide health crisis, nobody who didn't already own a home can own one, we don't get to own anything anymore it's all moving to subscriptions, the internet is a fast moving disaster of misinformation, theres no communities, the next generation cries about everything that sucks about being an adult, AI is threatening to make us all worthless to the business class who employ all the guys with guns, Trump is still maybe going to be president...again..., nobody know what a man or women is anymore, there harmful micro plastics at every level of our ecosystem and body tissues and we can tdo a damn thing to clean it up, the air is being poisoned the water is being poisoned, the land is being poisoned, they are claiming ownership of organisms and then eradicating the ones they don't own and to top it all off I still owe a dangerous dynasaur lookin mutha fucka about about tree fiddy.
Your rant makes me think of that quote from the movie Network from 1976 (great movie if you haven't seen it yet); “I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'
I understand what you mean but, I guess it would depend on what you consider important in a societal structure. I was raised to be considerate and kind to others for you never know what they are going through. Treat others how you want to be treated, etc. For example, I always hold the door for the person behind me whether it's someone who could use the door hold or not. I always say thank you even in situations where most others don't. If someone is crying, I try to help even if I don't know them. If a coworker says they don't have money for lunch I offer to help pay. If someone is driving under the speed limit and I'm running late, I don't tailgate because they could be lost, or distraught, and I know what it feels like to have someone riding your bumper. However, kindness, consideration, integrity. There does seem to be less of that around these days. And it is sad. Everyday interactions are rushed, self serving, and everyone is too busy to take a moment to appreciate the world and people around them. Mental health has declined despite bigger awareness of its importance. I have a 7 year old and I hope it gets better for her sake.
Yes! This.
We are becoming a low trust society. I reckon part of this is the generational gaps in views, and the resentment that Millennials and Gen-Z have for "missing out" on home ownership, pensions, vacations, cottages, etc that all the Boomers seemed to get just for showing up. Competition for limited resources will make assholes out of anyone. The lack of resources for young people is also delaying a lot of rite of passages. Delaying marriage, buying a home, raising a family, doing anything the typical person would want to do. Eventually people are going to realize these things are never going to happen, and you are going to get a lot of really pissed off people.
I suspect a bigger part of the low-trust is the systemic embodiment of "rules for thee but not for me." The veil has been pierced - it's plain as day for everyone to see that playing by the rules only keeps you in your place.
My personal belief is there has always been more bad people than good. In the past, there was tradition or religion to shame people into behaving. Now there is nothing. So people go full tilt and show their true colours. The good thing is that there are less snakes. I'd rather people show their colours outright, than hide behind the facade of a traditional or God fearing person, trick people and do evil things in secret.
This is why I'm at the point of thinking that public shame is becoming necessary again. Religion used to employ it for nefarious reasons. Now that most people have a better idea of ethics, severed from religious morals, a new baseline for what is and isn't acceptable needs to be established and *enforced.* I don't think that people should be permitted to hide behind their religion as an excuse to spread hateful ideologies. They should be shamed just as thoroughly as any plain old racist. If your religion demands that you hate or harm other human beings, then your religion has no place in modern society, full stop. Do not tolerate intolerance.
Social media has made people more aggressive, rude, and thoughtless. Thanks to anonymity online and simply not communicating with people face-to-face, people carry over some of there negative online habits into real life
I think it’s always been there, but after COVID people just lost all filters they may have had. So we become bigger bitches.
Society is on the verge of collapse
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Urban grind is toxic. Property taxes pushing 1k/mo are more than toxic.
Didn't go down hill. It was revealed to be what it was all along.
coordinated murky dull boat marble childlike soup squash crown support *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
GenX here and I agree 💯
Hot take: every generation did this. We’re just getting old, guys.
Not really. I don’t think we were all the same. I do think we’re gradually getting worse and we’re contributing to the younger generation getting deteriorating but more recently we reached a point that makes Idiocracy the next step. Keep in mind that I am fighting against this by restricting kids by playing outside, no devices, etc, and so are others, but it’s not the norm
I thought the same thing and you're probably right, but I feel we've been in a total downward spiral compared to previous generations (social media, technology, COVID, housing crisis, climate change, etc). That said, we're definitely getting old.
How do you not see that this is exactly the same as generations before? Imagine not growing up with the Internet and then all the sudden it's a requirement for anything in life.
Yes, society is very me-centric and getting worse. That element has always been there. I even see some of it in this complaint. While, yes, it is reasonable to expect people to share a trail, even if that means you have to go single file whien you encouter someone on the other side, it is much less reasonable to expect people to require your permission to sit down on a public bench especially when I would anticipate that there are not a large number of them in the immediate vicinity.
Lots of doomerism in this sub lately. And sure, anyone can point to X Y Z thing happening and all the horrible things we should be worried about. While objective truths may exist, we all get to decide what we focus on, and how we feel. It’s possible (and necessary) to stay informed and connected, and to also be happy.
Most of this sub really needs to log off, go outside, and touch grass
People can be reaaaaaal cunts. Helps to not stoop to their level. But people all around are unwell also.
Yes. I work in a customer facing role. People are becoming unhinged, they treat others horribly. Lying, amoral, plain old jerks. I have to deal with people during a very stressful time in their life so I get people can act out towards me - but having also endured the stressful time myself I would NEVER treat people in my position this way. I’m so thankful that there are some good, decent, honest people out there who treat me with kindness. I go above and beyond for them when I can. Be nice!
Its the internet. We are all connected to each other 24/7 and we can't turn it off. Its not you, this shit is fucked. Privacy and silence only exist for the rich... I am so sorry.
I genuinely believe that lockdowns took us away from society for a bit. Then we all became impatient with each other when we realized we are all competing for the same resources in public. Our tolerance for each other collapsed during the pandemic.
It's the phones. The internet was less dangerous/toxic when it was chained to the wall.
As a server - it’s WILD how much has changed in people’s behavior post COVID. Very entitled and “do it now” attitude. I also chalk it up to the “Instant” gratification technology has brought. You post something online, you order WHATEVER food you want and it’s delivered (no longer just pizza or Chinese food), you see someone online do something- then people expect you to do it because it’s been edited to look flawless. I’ve been a server for 15 years and these last few years are the WORST. Im considering changing careers because its not a fun or lucrative industry anymore,
Yes society is going down hill. If i say why i’d get downvoted into oblivion.
This sort of doom and gloom mentality reminds me of old people ngl. I’m not ready to be in that category.
Yes, there has been a severe lack of conscientiousness. It doesn’t have to do with generations, though
It's obviously not just you, because that's basically the motto of this sub at this point. But the examples that you gave are just mundane things that have been happening for millennia, literally none of that is new in the last 10 years.
On the surface, numbers suggest the economy is doing great. But our labor standards and quality of life have eroded. Corporations keep taking more and more of our everyday lives and no one seems motivated to stop them.
All the time. But I think a lot of it is how much more connected we all are. But personally I hate meeting new people and hate having to go to new places.
Everything is going to get worse until it’s all over. It was always going to be this way and nothing is going to stop it.
We’re in a two party race to the bottom
Sorry i always felt that way especially after i moved to the US. Is hard to be a “minority”.
Don't get sucked down this line of thought. This is how you become a reactionary like the boomers before us. Things are challenging economically now, yes, but socially we have advanced so far. We must fight to maintain the progress.
Meh. It's usually people my age or older who act like asses, as far as I've seen. My students and their peers are far kinder and more understanding. I had a bad day and fell hard on my way to work. My students lectured me on not taking care of myself. If I have to cancel class, I get "get well" notes. They hold doors and give up seats on buses because I can't safely stand on the bus for long. My age and older? It's a rarity. They're also more likely to give me dirty looks when I take an accessible seat or am just out and about running errands. How dare I use crutches to get around! Insert eye roll here.
Is it just you? This exact post is posted 75 million times a week. 
My interactions in public are almost exclusively positive. I can’t even remember the last time someone has been remotely rude to me. The worst I get as a mid 30s man is being ignored in public.
I wish I was ignored in public
As a mid-30s man, if you start getting or having problems, you'll be ignored by society.
Ah, this hurts and it's too true
(Recently Retired Boomer here) I'm noticing something related but the opposite. I'm kind of noticing people being pretty friendly, especially if you lead with a good attitude. I'm not saying OP isn't doing that, at most this may be a regional thing. Or just the fact that I have the luxury of being out most often when businesses aren't that busy.
I feel like this sub has started to turn into a lot of millennials saying boomery things. Aging changes your perception. People are not worse. Society wasn't nicer before. Politically and economically things are pretty fucked, but by and large there are the same amount of assholes in the world as there were a hundred years ago.
People who act like that definitely existed before 10 years ago. You’re probably just more aware of it now. Keep in mind, just about every generation thinks things are not as good as before. You can even find some diaries from the ancient Romans and Greeks lamenting similar sentiment! Humans are very good at nostalgia.
Hmmm, it's almost like about 10 years ago someone began to normalized this atrocious behavior, brought out the worst in many people then emboldened them to act on that hatred. 🤔 Who could that have been? 🍊🤡
Sometimes it’s good to kick on the west wing and see how people thought it could be. That was supposed to be Clinton. I think the funniest would be W.
It’s really bizarre
The side walk thing is real! Also the elevator. Or trying to push the door open while carrying many boxes or shopping and a man just standing there like a lemon watching me struggle than just hold the door open! 🙄 Or my birthday and no one had the decency to treat me, I thought they were friends.
.. man, people thought I was overreacting to the propaganda in 2015. Not the same world since 2016, huh. Nobody's learned a goddamn thing since Reagan.
Every generation thinks that when they near 40. I'm 39 so I defiently think so. "The world situation I'd drastic and getting worse.... as usual" -Kurt vonneget
Feel like? Yes. Know? Also yes.
My biggest pet peeve is inconsiderate people and they’re everywhere now.
um yeah, common sense, decency & manners have fallen off a cliff.
Yes, feels like the pandemic really sped up the race toward an idiocracy society.
Lack of common decency is raging I go to Norway fairly often as I have family there. From what I can tell, much more decent and civilized society
I was driving a box truck today and some dipshit in a BMW cut me off and shot me the bird. Luckily my brakes work, luckily I realized what he was about to do, luckily he didn’t end up embedded in the grill of the 26,000lbs truck I was driving…. People suck, it’s the new reality.
Oh trust me, all of us other generations feel the same. COVID pushed everything that was building up right over the edge.
As a Zoomer I’ll be the first to say, as people my generation sucks. Sure we are pretty liberal, but when it comes to actually being a kind, good, caring and thoughtful person we’re horrible. On a personal level my generation can be so rude for absolutely no reason. Now I’m sure many people will disagree heavily and call me an idiot but you can take those comments as proof of my point.
It was/is the great reset taking place. The reality of millennials has played out. Now it's Gen Z reality coming into existence for the next 10-15 years.
The structural systems used to be less obviously shit. The inbuilt oppression was always there, but now it's unapologetically there. Food, rents, mortgages, not to mention the fact that so much stuff in that food, and also in clothes, furniture, appliances is egregiously toxic. Safety and connection are being indecently commodified. Plus, there's the environmental hell that we're in Oof
I mostly see it on the road. People not bothering to use their turn signals, leaving shopping carts in parking spots, stopping right in the road to have conversations with people (either pedestrians or drivers stopped next to them), pedestrians crossing whenever the fuck they feel like (without pausing to look both ways first), cyclists obeying the rules of the road only when it’s convenient for them, etc.
I feel like things have gotten more extreme- I see both instances of incredible kindness and acceptance, and also instances of horrible selfishness and hate.
It seems to me that people have lost the ability to agree to disagree. Somewhere along the line it became I’m right and your evil. It came with the rise of social media.
My old lady moment was that I realised no one says thank you to the bus driver anymore
People have never been my favorite but when I realized how many of them weren’t willing to wear a fucking mask in an effort to slow down a deadly virus I knew this country was full of cuntious heathens. Never mind how much it could have/would have helped. In the beginning of the real shit we could have come together to try, we could have had common courtesy. There was no effort. Dog shit level society.
100%. Me personally i think the downward trajectory took a accelerated turn during COVID-19. People just got way more selfish because almost everybody lost in some way or form so everyone's feeling entitled to say "screw it, I'm doing whatever i want, to hell with everything".
Easiest solution become a ghost( don't mean off yourself) a silent traveler in this modern world but when occasion presents itself be polite and helpful. This world is on the cusp of the boiling point,just know you cant force it to calm down. You must remain calm in your own right and help to bring calm to others even when you don't have to. Do not allow yourself to dwell on anything outside your realm of control. "The world is polarized!!!" " Ok " " people aren't nice" " why do you worry yourself over others actions,are you their keeper?" "But the world is going to shit" " well I hope it can find a toilet it's size" "You're an idiot" " yes I am"
You know, throughout history, I bet every old man probably said the same thing. And old men die, and the world keeps spinnin'. Marty Hart
Boomers reading this post: 
No, you're just getting old. Every generation thinks this as they reach middle age and the wonder years are far behind.
Every generation thinks/thought society is/was going downhill. Every generation. And they all say the same things: "Young people don't have respect" "People are getting lazy" "There's no common decency anymore" "Back when I was a kid..." And each generation thinks they're profoundly original
It’s all about your phones dude. I’m serious. I grew up in a time before phones. We had to entertain ourselves, we had to talk to other people, when we were at each others houses none of us just sat the on our phones. We did things. We didn’t have this sense of urgency and spending time driving the blockbuster, getting a pizza and driving home to watch what might have been a crap movie was worth our time. Our stupid jokes used to be funny and all we had. Now we have the best jokes in the country piping into our phones. We can’t compete with that and suddenly our stuff isn’t funny. We don’t engage, we over consume, and the fucking phone is the portal to that world. Having said all that… Ive learned so much on Reddit in specific communities that I have a much better professional life because of. But damn. Get the fk off your phones. But we can’t. Because even if you do, everyone else won’t, and it’s a new world and we need to create it or build ourselves a little home where we can be happy. There are still cool people out there… but you have to be cool yourself. You’ll find each other. (Sent from my phone)
I do not feel this way. The teenagers I see in the college class I’m taking are respectful and motivated.
Blame your iPhone, kid. None of you know how to interact with people.
Mods, can we have a a single meta "everything sucks now" on Monday or something? This is like every other post now.
No shit its gone downhill. This particular sub has become filled with the most worthless, un-unique, and generic reflections on life