Sad that the pandemic didn't make us better

I wonder if there is an element that people feel a bit duped about lockdown. It's clear now that many of the measures were ineffective and OTT

IMO this is precisely the point, @Bumpitybumper, though I wouldn't quite say the measures were ineffective from the POV of those driving them

Not when you consider how much so many made on the deal ...

Edited to add no probs, @BlueJuniper94; as said I was at fault for not clarifying what I wrote

Apologies, I find this a strange place at times.

I agree, and that's what I assumed, but just wanted to check in case I had misunderstood

No weird debate, I was just curious.

Yeah. I don’t think we’re in a particularly “kind” time in society. Often reflected on this site.

Thailand. Will provide further information if it’s likely to cause some weird kind of debate.

I agree. I actually thought we might emerge to a gentler society. There was definitely a spirit of camaraderie during the pandemic but I'm pretty sure things are even worse now than before. There seems to be more violent crime, more rudeness, more pushing and shoving than I ever remember. But then, I wonder how things were after the Black Death (which killed three quarters of the European population). Did they emerge with a greater sense of kindness and kinship, or did the previous horrors and their own seeming immortality make them quicker to elbow others out the way.

This is sad to hear. I wonder if there is an element that people feel a bit duped about lockdown. It's clear now that many of the measures were ineffective and OTT. I think maybe now suspect this is true of anyone that relies on an element of shielding to keep themselves safe. Such a shame!

Right. You know what I meant. I am a PIP assessor and I am also disabled, so I’m quite aware of what is apparently going on. Still willing to give them a chance, and don’t agree they are the reason for everything wrong in this country.

That's not true though. Health care professionals put themselves at risk to save others, people volunteered to check on older people in their neighbourhoods and get shopping for them to protect them. Millions of people obeyed the rules to protect the most vulnerable. How is that not caring?

Most local authorities have had their budgets completely ransacked so they can't afford to fund anything other than statutory services and even then they aren't even able to fund those properly.

Everyone knows how much money in the long term is saved by having good non-statutory preventative services running but it takes money local authorities just don't have to make it happen.

They've been in power for a year, and are currently trying to shaft the disabled.

Which country?

Ok, we will see I guess. Personally I see attitudes actually hardening IRL and on MN. Lots more people openly demanding welfare reforms and complaining about tax increases.

Boris was in charge of a government of self serving tossers.

If that’s the standard then yes, you start to look out for yourself. He showed the country his political ambitions were more important than our economic and cultural future. Now we are in a mess and other self serving tossers like Farage have a platform for their warped ideology.

People forget that bring good kind and generous actually feels really good, and is beneficial to mental health and it spreads. One kind act deserves another. That is what is sad.

Sorry, BlueJuniper94, I should have made that clearer

I was referring to government and that section of the scientific community who sold their integrity for expediency

They’ve been in power for about 2 minutes. If the country has gone through a decade of austerity, it will take a bit longer for impact of a new government to take effect and shift attitudes.

The double standards from government have actually made many many people less caring.

My youngest is very vulnerable and pre pandemic people were brilliant. Nobody would dream of coming to my home with a cold or a bug. If their children had been in contact with my other children I'd get an instant heads up "Mary has come down with a cold" or "shit, I think Fred has chicken pox".

Now it's like people no longer care that a cough or cold, or virus like Covid, can actually be serious for some people. And more than they their wishes, or their child's wishes, are more important.

Three times in the last couple of years parents have actively hidden chicken pox and covid from us so we didn't cancel attendance at a birthday party. They didn't want their child to be upset. One of those occasions led to Covid in our house and DD4 ending up in ICU.

We live every day knowing that living - the children going to school, having social lives etc, is a risk. But it used to be a risk that was minimised because other people were considerate. We have to live it because our other children need an education and they need lives. It was much easier before Boris and Co pissed people off to the point they did.

An excuse for what?

The government

I feel the same. You’d hope after something so horrible we’d all try and be grateful and work together for a better world. However it’s gone completely the other way. Shows there is no logic to human nature.

Businesses are still using Covid as an excuse. It pisses me off.

Right so how have attitudes changed under Labour?

I think humans are intrinsically quite selfish. It is coded into us. This is why concepts like Communism have never worked properly in any country. Ultimately we put ourselves first. Most people don't like to see other suffering but there is a point where people don't want to support others in society if they feel that those they are supporting have more than them or that meeting these support needs is having a huge adverse impact on them. It is absolutely logical really. You see the exact same mentality between the groups you have referenced (disabled, single parents, working poor). I have seen on loads of threads disabled people suggesting that their benefits should be protected in a way that the working poor's aren't because the working poor can just go out and get a better job. Single mothers also apparently chose to have their kids so are less of a priority then disabled people.... Humans ultimately do what humans do and put themselves first.

Have people become kinder in the last year under Labour? Genuinely interested if the change in Government has had any impact. (I don’t live in the UK.)