To marvel at the curtain twitching and spite

[viques]

You know when they had witch burnings, public hangings, or if you are French , public executions by guillotine? Well I now realise that they weren't exaggerating the crowds that turned up to enjoy the spectacle judging by the number of nasty , spiteful posts today frothing at the mouth about how their neighbours are using schools, getting deliveries, standing too close, etc etc etc . I think the posters who are hoiking their judgey pants so dangerously close to their tonsils are the same ones who would be denouncing their neighbours to the witch finder, the revolutionary committees and magistrates before packing a picnic and their knitting and taking themselves off for a day trip to the village pond or the local prison.

I know MN can be a playground for mean girls, I know everyone is stressed and anxious, but omg this virus is bringing out the worst in some people.

Chill out guys, eat if you have it and cuddle a to get your blood pressure down.

I agree OP. I visited the Stasi Museum in Berlin last year where neighbours in East Germany were encouraged to report on each other and rewarded for doing so- the snitches writing on here would have loved it. I think many do it out of jealousy. This behaviour was around in Nazi Germany and during the Cultural Revolution in China too so it is just human nature

I think some people are very stressed and scared and don’t have a better way to handle it than by trying to control things/people they can’t control. Other people have just seized on the excuse to be as vicious and as controlling as they’ve always secretly wanted to be.

justincake and others, I'm not really talking about being aware and angry about others doing things that do impinge on others safety and well being, I am more talking about the keyboard warriors who are seeing something their neighbours are doing -which might be quite innocent - making assumptions about it and then making online accusations about it. There just seem to have been a lot of posts like this recently, and they are a bit depressing if they are an indication of the human condition.

Perhaps it's better that they reach for virtual pitchforks (there's a thought for a new MN emoji) rather than real ones, and I am aware that it is a minority and that most people are being kind, but it just struck me this morning how many mean posts there were.

Anyway, as you were. I'm going to plant some seeds and dream of summer, sweet peas, nasturtiums and morning glory .

I don't think the reasonable people on this thread would last long in a totalitarian regime.

I have seen in my local group a lot of jealousy towards people who get food delivery, so yes there is anger there

Reporting idiots who don't follow social distancing on the other hand, that's a public service. There's more than 680 death reported today, and climbing! It's not outrageous not to accept anything against the guidelines.

Completely. I was planning on starting a thread along these lines. Who has the time for all of these judgements and snooping as well?! Personally l barely have enough time to get my work and house stuff done. It's impressive people have all this spare time. Lots of jealousy when in reality it’s tough on everyone

@JustInCaseCakeHappens but yeah fair enough about the social distancing

I am amazed at the ability of some poster who see a snapshot of someone's life (or movements) and extrapolate some major assumptions.

I tend to ignore them.

trouble with this virus is that it does not just infect the stupid.

but 'curtain twitching', 'snitching', 'grassing' is the MN playground mentality, and sadly I fear because this site may be predominantly female. If you see a crime you report it. Bet all the sillycow contingent would rush to the phone if they were a crime victim.

Thank God my community are pulling together. I live by sea on outskirts of Brighton and am always happy to read the positivity on my local fb pages

I agree. The hysteria and finger pointing about not following "the rules" which people on here have completely invented is a real eye-opener. But I am not sure it is a reflection of real life, where people are just trying to be as sensible as they can and aren't going all Donald Sutherland about their neighbour's imagined infringements.

The non-clapping NHS threads really take it to a new level. Makes you wonder though why people are like that, what’s the evolutionary benefit to this kind of social policing. I think it might be a case of some degree of rule following being beneficial but the instinct for it going too far in some aberrant individuals who the taint psychologically normal people through social pressure or conditioning.

sadly I fear because this site may be predominantly female

Not on.

Crises being out the best in good people and the worst in cunts.

and sadly I fear because this site may be predominantly female

Mmmn, truly a disturbing thing, indeed.
I wonder, what would be the the collective noun for a group of women sharing information online?

A terror of internet ladies?

A berserk of online females?

A wandering womb of hysterics?

I agree I keep thinking of Nazi Youth or Orwells 1984 and thought police and the kids dobbing their parents in for crimes the parents didn't even know they'd committed.

Yep me too. MN is full of people shouting at other people (usually getting 'the roolz' wrong in the process) and asking where to 'report people to'. Its also scary how often these people are getting it wrong and frothing at the mouth over something thats entirely normal and not harming anyone else.

Yes if someone was having a garden party in the middle of your street get them moved but someone going for a walk in the field next to thier house in the middle of nowhere isnt going to infect the whole world!

Its startlingly obvious just how the Gestapo managed to gain control via encouraging ordinary people to hunt out anyone they thought of as a 'threat' to report them for anything they touted as 'abnormal' or 'unpatriotic' (or nothing at all if they held a grudge against them and just wanted rid of them) in the name of being a 'good citizen'.

There are very few threads I would comment on these days, I get too annoyed at all the SHOUTING! I stick to the ones I know are level headed, friendly and supportive and dare I say it, have a laugh. (Apparently having laugh isnt allowed these days either) Even on these threads we can still manage to do all the guidelines without letting the rest of the world know how wonderful we are for doing it.

TBH Swishthecat sadly that picture could be the mascot of many a thread on here at the moment.

Yep, I have access to some of the residents association pages private messages for my local area.

Some of the messages are awful, including one about me leaving the house 2 times in one day - once to shop for 3 families and drop them off the to the families then an emergency Calpol dash to a family. I'm not messing about with the lockdown just to clarify!

Others about people not walking their dogs properly, one about a family splitting dog walks - both single so taking their labs out together so they get 2 decent walks a day iyswim. One about a single guy having visitors (his partner is a key worker who's moved in, they live on my street!)

It's bloody vicious and mostly by people who paint this fake veneer of how lovely and upstanding they are, we clap for NHS and then complain about one of the nurses nearby parking at the bottom not her drive.

Sorry, really need a good vent there!

It's bloody grim on here. The worst today was someone being the Big I Am having had the utter impertinence to challenge someone with a cough in the supermarket. Had he had a test? was it negative? He looked like a shifty liar. His wife looked ashamed to be with him. What a nightmare.

Going all Donald Sutherland . I'm using that. Great film.

If you think about it though, MN is often like this before this Virus, perfectionism, shaming others, virtue signalling...it is just like that on steroids now as it has a new 'focus'

MN is unbearable at the moment. Totally agree with the points made here.

There seems to me to be a lot of people who don’t have much going on in their normal lives and this crisis has injected some meaning into their Iives.

They. Must. Save. Lives.

I sort of get it if I’m feeling empathetic...but fuck me, it’s tiresome

Also....anxiety is totally contagious. And the contagion is high on MN

I've seen it on my local facebook page too. Living in a village near to three other villages I am a member of all four village facebook pages and on each and every one there are (usually semi literate) Covid 19 vigilantes. I tend to post "Unless you have a blue uniform and collar number leave it to the professionals" ad nauseum

In repressive regimes throughout history people are always told that reporting on their neighbours is a duty because the anti-social/deviant behaviour (whether that’s political thought or a religious belief or just being different) threatens the group and may spread (like a virus) unless it is actively stamped out.

The pandemic, where the risk is the spread of an actual virus, provides a perfect petri dish to demonstrate how this rhetoric and attitude can take hold in a community - even the ever sensible and pragmatic UK!

We shouldn’t believe that these people would behave any differently if the situation involved reporting to the secret police of a repressive regime that happened to be in power, they would just need the right mix of motivations (fear, anger, jealousy, a desire to feel morally superior, praise, recognition, reward...).

There are always people who like reporting things to the authorities. They may be suspect themselves - people who call social services, the police, with suspicions. In the old days they used to write letters disclaiming other people.

It’s a bit like politics; those people who engage with this stuff too readily are the last people you want to have organising things.

The secret service gets 100s of applications from people like this a year, begging to be spies. Fortunately all that happens is that this never goes anywhere as they have already made themselves unsuitable by asking at all....