Some people enjoy patronising and depressing others

[Esprohuy]

Clearly everyone is having a different experience of the current situation. It seems to me from the posts here and elsewhere that MN is full of people searching for threads from people either asking genuinely when others think the restrictions may be reduced, or people expressing mental or emotional.distress due to being locked away, sometimes alone. The pattern is the OP posts, there are a couple of sympathetic/in the case of lockdown speculation dovish opinions then the Depressor swoops, usually with a formulation along the lines of:
If you think these restrictions will be lifted anytime soon you are a naïve fool. Christmas will be cancelled and things will never fully return to normal

In the threads expressing mental distress their standard formulation is a variety of:
FFS pull yourselves together. It's been (insert number) weeks, how the F do you think people coped in the war the. All you are being asked to do is stay in and watch Netflix

There seems to be a remarkably large number of people among this cohort who claim grandparental involvement in WW1/2 and have a partner/sibling serving as a front line NHS worker. These depressors seem to scour MN looking to pounce on people expressing povs like the above.

I'm definitely getting the sense that some people want lock down to be a miserable as possible, for as many people as possible.

Agreed OP. To be honest I think it's just that for people who need to validate themselves externally by putting others down have just found a very easy subject to do it under. Its remarkably sad really that these people are so incredibly lacking in social skills and self awareness that they target others. I think we all make the mistake of doing it sometimes but there are definitely people who seek it out.

I suspect it's just more obvious as they have to work at it usually but covid means it's just a convenient subject.

Yes you’re right. I genuinely believe a lot of it is people who are pretty miserable with their lives anyway, and are now happy that other people have to be miserable too.

It is rife, and I agree it's generally people who do it anyway.

There's a woman on our local Facebook page who is particularly bad. She works in a local pharmacy, and is one of those people who puts the angry face emoji at the end of everything she writes.

She was angry before all this kicked off, and now has the perfect opportunity to rage online even more.

YANBU. It's not just coronavirus though, there are posters who look to do this about almost any issue - coronavirus is just a great opportunity for them

Yanbu. It's like they see someone is down and want to give them a good kicking

Exactly what @Drivingdownthe101 said. People that were unhappy before all this seem to be revelling in other people's misery now. People that are happy or fulfilled don't tend to criticise and judge others.

Yep. And when anyone talks about wanting something to look forward to, like a holiday for example, people pile in with nasty comments like "you're deluded if you think you're going on holiday" "why are you even thinking about holidays at a time like this".

Some people just revel in misery.

I think some people definitely lack empathy and just don’t get that some people aren’t coping. Possibly they just block out negativity and plough on. Blinkered, possibly. Others certainly do the whole ‘You’re an idiot, why are you being such a moaner, Christmas is cancelled’. I think lots of us are frustrated but it’s as pointless doing the martyr suck it up shit as it is to be super negative to others.

Yep there are some nasty twats on here.
Course you can have your opinion but just because you don't agree no need to call someone thick/dense etc just because they disagree . What I've seen on here last couple of days .

Miles “ She works in a local pharmacy, and is one of those people who puts the angry face emoji at the end of everything she writes.”

I don’t use Facebook, i hadn’t realised “those” people were prevalent.

AIBU has always been full of posters who liked to give others a good kicking and/or destroying any joy they might have about something. I think people are just more sensitive to it now when before you would have rolled your eyes and thought no more about it.

The same people also love restrictively and pedantically enforcing the exact letter of what they believe the law to be during lockdown, often erroneously (you may only leave your house for 60 minutes! A 61 minute walk is a crime and you're murdering people!). Those people have always loved judging other people for not upholding self-imposed, arbitrary standards, so for them it's a dream come true to believe there's a legal backing to stopping other people from having fun.

LisaSimpsonsbff I genuinely don’t know what they’ll do when restrictions are lifted and they can no longer berate people online for rule breaking.

I think there will be a period where we no longer have restrictions in law but there are still advisory guidelines to limit social contact, which those people will continue to berate people for not sticking to

To be honest I think women in general are guilty of this as clearly this a female dominated forum and yet on the forums I go on for my hobby that are mostly male dominated, there seems to be a hell of a lot more rational discussion about CV on that than in some of these threads where hysteria, panic and curtain twitching seems to be the norm.

On my local FB page the hysteria doesn't seem to be limited to either sex. There was a particularly mad post berating everyone who didn't clap on Thursday and that was from a man.

OP, for whatever reason there always has been & always will be people that come online just to argue. They can't argue if you don't engage, I just ignore & they're left talking to themselves.

Hate to say it but there are some bitter old women out there

Have you not noticed the legion of people berating their parents for doing a weekly shop or going for a walk? Apparently because they were 70 last week they’re going to infect the whole of the county and use up every ITU bed in the hospital.

It’s brought out all the dementors.

"Dementors" love it

My GP, nurse and pharmacy friends are sane, rational and realistic on FB. They spread cheer not angry faces.

Very interesting posts. I reckon the opportunity to push yourself up to a position of moral superiority on the backs of others perceived failings is the key driver. I'm more convinced than ever that calling them out is key, showing that we see what they are doing.

Lilactree I think they just shout the loudest, & everyone else gets put off posting.

There always have been dementors:

AIBU Should I go non-contact with my mother? She's always ignored my boundaries and now she's given my toddler a cup of Dettol to drink so she doesn't catch Coronavirus.
98% YANBU
Dementor: How dare you, one day your mother will be DEAD and then you'll MISS her. I'd LOVE my mother to be alive to give my toddler a WHOLE BOTTLE of Dettol.

They are easier to spot at present because of the limited focus of current topics with predictable responses, plus all the virtue cycle, martyr bonus points of citing "PEOPLE WILL DIE!!!" at walking through an empty field at dawn AND sunset. Or the HORROR of a picnic. Or the RECKLESSNESS of a 71 year old walking down the shop to buy a newspaper to fill a couple of hours of an otherwise lonely day who will of course be responsible for the DEATHS of the entire ITU department at the local hospital. (I'd like to think I'm hyperbolising for dramatic writing, but the Dementors kind of did it for me )

Then of course because we've all spectacularly failed to follow the Dementor's imaginary rules, we will all be responsible for prolonging the lockdown because the government will keep us all in like a national class detention missing play time. And then we'll all be nearly as miserable as the Dementor.

I suppose all the toxic mothers/ MiLs/ shit bosses and playground/ staffroom bullies have to do something with their time while sitting pent up in the house of their own free choice, inbetween naming and shaming neighbours for improper clapping and walking the dog twice.