Have we, in the UK, become selfish, lawless and irresponsible?

Oh, I've no qualms at all about being a moany old person or sounding ancient. Youth is overrated.

I just read about some utter idiots swimming in the wildlife ponds in Hampstead Heath, disturbing the swans and the wildlife life, during nesting season.

What’s wrong with people?

Well I saw some of the social media videos calling for teens largely to gather at various beaches and they were of facecovered male teens holding fuck long machete knives. Waving them about.

What I don't understand is if you are a teen and think "oh let's go and have a look what's going on" what is going through your mind? Why would you want to be anywhere near there? They know that stabbings happen. They know randoms are killed. Life over before it has even begun. And worse case scenario aside, why would you turn up to give these hooligans

We've had to talk to our teens about what happens if they are out and a flash mob starts to form. My parents never had to consider these things.

The BBC article this morning on the increase, steep increase, of suspensions from school that have homophobia, sexism, racism or ableism as a contributing factor, which was indicated that not all of this can be dealt with in a classroom and there must but external influences, home life, which inspire this poison in the first place. Which is totally understandable, the rise of far-right politics has allowed, encouraged, persuaded many adults that only straight, pale males are of worth.

Many parents, and adults themselves, don't care about decency as long as they are popular. Many people are beholden to "likes" online as value of their worth and the most popular of posts are not people playing rounders in the park are they?

How much is social media? Especially for the youngsters. Get the right formula, get enough likes, you can then live like a millionaire. And the tech gods in silicon valley get richer and richer in their golden gated castles whilst teenagers get stabbed for going to the beach.

Social media is banned in this house, not youtube but tiktok, mainly, and snapchat. Doesn't really help that much with the society our teens are part of. But it's what we can do right now.

You sound positively ancient with that comment. I'm 50 and remember people moaning about other people in exactly the same way 30 years ago and resolved never to be that moany old person.

It all comes back to one thing - parenting.

Bringing up decent children that wouldn’t dare swear, hurt anyone, be rude etc. If the car parks full and you sling your car anywhere, what is that teaching children watching? Again, having a picnic and not clearing up, teaches the children it’s ok to litter and destroy our beautiful outdoor places. Children learn what they see.

There is no excuse, no conditions to blame, no way of blaming friends, internet, SM etc etc. Its plain and simple rubbish parenting and they’ve failed to bring up their children well.

I just read about some utter idiots swimming in the wildlife ponds in Hampstead Heath, disturbing the swans and the wildlife life, during nesting season.

What’s wrong with people?

Too many people, significantly increased ability to travel (rise in personal cars), a disposable economy which generates lots of rubbish at the best of times, and a rise in the expectation that you must go somewhere and do something (rather than stay at home or in your local area and just enjoy some downtime) all mean that what used to be pleasant natural areas now turn into little more than overcrowded cesspits on any weekend with reasonable weather.

I've grown up near somewhere that about 15 years ago was unheard of. It's not particularly special, it's nice with open space and trees and there's a good couple of walks but that's about all I can say.

Now it is - quite literally - covered in shit after the bank holiday. Not all of it dog either.

If I was the owner I'd introduce a strict quota on how many people can come in, charge for entry, and use those fees to pay for a warden to make sure people behave like civilised people and not apes.

It's another place ruined by too many people trying to cram into it.

I don't know what the answer is sadly.

People are miserable and poorer than ever before so they need to get their bit of sun and they are raging. All a bit miserable I agree.

The kind who think it's isn't ENGLISH so it shouldn't be in ENGLAND, those foreigners coming over here and telling us we can't celebrate Christmas or Jesus and then SHOVING EID IN OUR FACES.

So, idiotic one.

What dickheads are annoyed at Eid celebrations?

This Bank Holiday seems to have descended into chaos and honestly I am starting to wonder what is happening to people generally.

This weekend alone there have been reports, tragically, of teenagers drowning in rivers and reservoirs, emergency services unable to reach one incident because of illegal parking, beauty spots gridlocked with abandoned cars, beaches overwhelmed with people drinking and taking drugs to excess, fights, weapons, rubbish left everywhere, police being called because a pair of teenagers were apparently having sex openly in a park, and racist outrage because a tourist attraction acknowledged Eid and invited people to celebrate it.

What strikes me is that this feels much wider than just young people behaving badly. Adults blocking roads and verges because they cannot be bothered to park properly. Families leaving litter behind. People ignoring safety warnings around open water. Whole communities unwilling to challenge awful behaviour because someone else should deal with it.

And every time there is discussion afterwards, the blame immediately goes to lack of education, the police, the council, schools, anyone except the individuals involved, their parents, or society more broadly.

I also wonder whether increasingly populist politics and public discourse have plays a role. Constant anger, division and disrespect towards other people, experts, authority and even basic rules seems to have filtered into everyday behaviour. More entitlement, less responsibility, less thought for anyone else.

At what point did personal responsibility disappear? When did we stop caring about our impact on other people or lose any sense of community?

It all feels increasingly selfish, lawless and entitled. Less consideration, less accountability, less self discipline.

Have standards genuinely collapsed or am I overreacting and being unreasonable?

I was saying exactly this to a friend today, many people no longer know how to behave.. littering, smoking/vaping and blowing it in peoples faces, barging onto trains and not letting people off first, aggressive driving, playing music out-loud for everyone to hear, I was hiking up Ben Nevis a couple years ago and there was a couple with a boom box hiking up it near me, as if everyone wants to hear your shit music up a mountain! Still though there are nice people around and it’s very easy to focus on the negative and spiral and think everything and everyone is shit

That’s wealth related not because the environment is good for them.

Over 500 public swimming pools and leisure sites have permanently closed across the UK since 2010, with roughly 42% of those losses occurring since 2020 alone.