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.

Have they seem the impact on mental health in places with those strict lockdowns.

This thread is a bit of a tonic . Having pretty much recovered from an unpleasant bout of illness which was almost certainly Covid-19, the last thing I need is all the fucking catastrophising on here. Before I got sick, I was considering leaving MN because of all the hysteria on the 'worried well' threads, but I've actually found it quite useful to chat to posters who have also been ill about the realities, as opposed to what someone's read on FB or the fucking Fail.

A few weeks ago I was feeling well enough to start doing some online shopping (shock horror!) and posted about a few bits and bobs I'd bought to cheer myself up, it was on a nice, cheerful thread. You can guess what happens next, right?

Cue one of the Dementors (name like a problematic Scrabble hand), with a mini-lecture on how we should stop 'buying unnecessary stuff' because All Our Lives Are Going To Be Different From Now On. Y'know, we all need to Step Off The Hamster-Wheel of Consumerism, 'cause You Will Lose Your Job and Your Home in the Impending Economic Catastrophe. Jesus, you can't even buy some books and chocolate without Cassandras telling you that the world is ending. FFS, fuck off!

Apologies for length. I feel better now

The ones that really annoy me are the 'oh we've never had a real lockdown in the UK at all, it's always been so lax, after all we even let children out!

Yes these fuck me off too. Someone told me yesterday that it wasn’t a real lockdown and I was basically ‘free to do as I please’. No, I ‘please’ to see friends and family, go out for dinner, go to the pub, go to the gym, go to my Pilates class, go to the gym, have my hair cut, browse the shops, have a massage, send my kids to school, work... if all I ‘pleased’ to do was a daily walk and the odd trip to the supermarket then I guess she’d be right.

Someone told me yesterday that it wasn’t a real lockdown and I was basically ‘free to do as I please

Makes you wonder what kind of lifestyle that poster lives if she thinks this is being "free to do as you please". Some of us actually have friends and enjoy leaving our houses, shocking I know!

everythingisginandroses yes there was a recent thread about things you’ve bought in lockdown. Loads of posts saying people would be foolish to buy anything because we’re all going to lose our jobs, and we’re putting delivery drivers lives at risk for our own frivolous desires...

My last was something like

• a hot tub
• a trampoline
• craft supplies
• books
• make up
• clothes for me and the DC
• a fuck ton of Curly Wurlies

If we lose our jobs we’ll be screwed anyway, might as well face unemployment from the peace of my chavvy sex pond.

The calls for a Wuhan-style lockdown are really telling. After all this lockdown has worked, whether people think it's too soft or not a proper lockdown or whatever. It has done the job of reducing infection rate below 1 and stopping the spread of the virus. So the only reason at this point to clamour for a harsher lockdown is if you think it should be doing a different job, like 'making life grimmer'.

we’re putting delivery drivers lives at risk for our own frivolous desires

I am cackling at the piety! I bet these same puritan curtain twitchers have branded the woman next door as a "jezabel harlot" because she once showed her ankle to the chimney sweep 😱

Or ‘eradicating’ the virus which has apparently been the plan all along??!.

The dementors would hate this. In the Times today:

*The World Health Organisation lavished praise on Sweden as “a future model” in the next phase of fighting the outbreak because it has trusted people to observe social distancing rules.

Uniquely in Europe, Sweden chose not to tackle the pandemic with an enforced lockdown even though the policy has led to a higher death toll than in Denmark and Norway.

Dr Mike Ryan, of the WHO emergencies team, said it was wrong to believe that Sweden had “just let the infection spread”, adding: “Nothing can be further from the truth. Sweden has set a very strong policy on public health, it is about physical distancing and how to protect the elderly in various nursing homes and much more.”

Instead of schools, bars, restaurants and shops being closed, Swedes have been advised rather than compelled by the police or fines to adopt social-distancing measures*

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/sweden-is-a-model-for-the-new-coronavirus-normal-says-who-dd8fgw7d0

Yes, and I see that Sweden's approach was based not on fear, but on trust.
Don;t want to derail the subject on to Sweden, btw, it tends to cause them a lot of angst...

As an aside why do the *s never seem to work?

Sweden’s approach, Dr Ryan said, was a good example of how western societies could reach a “new normal”.

“What it has done differently is it has very much relied on its relationship with its citizenry and the ability and willingness of its citizens to implement self-distancing and self-regulate,” he said. “They have implemented public policy through that partnership . . . Sweden represents a future model if we want to return to a society that we do not have to close.”

Bet they aren't all snitching on each other to the police. Because it is about personal responsibility and treating each other like adults.

As an aside why do the s never seem to work*

No idea- sometimes they do, sometimes they dont- its weird

You have to do it separately for each paragraph

You have to do it separately for each paragraph

Thank you! Ive been wondering about that for ages

They don't work over paragraphs - you have to start and end each paragraph with a * - which is highly annoying.

I find it interesting that lots of people I know who are furious about the UK's late lockdown are ok with Sweden because they're Scandinavian and therefore inherently doing it right because they're just a better more enlightened society

Sorry for the cross-post about the *s!

@Drivingdownthe101 - a hot tub and a trampoline!!! Bravo, your sterling efforts are guaranteed to set the Dementors fizzing with rage - I bet their heads exploded when they got to the Curly-Wurlys!

And yes, as you correctly note, class is the elephant in every room on here, just as in the rest of British society. God forbid that the lower orders should have some fun and pleasure in life and enjoy themselves with 'cheap plastic tat' and drinking (pas devant les enfants!)

I find it interesting that lots of people I know who are furious about the UK's late lockdown are ok with Sweden because they're Scandinavian and therefore inherently doing it right because they're just a better more enlightened society

You have to remember that everyone is better than us, in the mind of a dementor. France/spain/Italy have apparently tolerated the stricter lockdown without a word of complaint or a single ‘flout’ of the rules because they are more compliant and law abiding and they actually care that PEOPLE ARE DYING. Scandinavians don’t need lockdown because they are civilised and responsible and they care that PEOPLE ARE DYING. Us? We are irresponsible, selfish and we do not care that PEOPLE ARE DYING. That’s just the way it is 🤷🏻‍♀️

The people I was thinking of aren't Dementors as such, in the main, but they are very left (I consider myself left wing, too, but they would not because I am Blairite scum) - I agree with them on lots of things but I've always found the Scandi worship annoying and this is a particularly bad manifestation of it.

Sorry, that was probably a bit off-topic because it wasn't about Dementors, it was more Dementor adjacent...

It’s the martyrdom at the lockdown altar.

If you’re not suffering then you’re not doing it right.

@drivingdownthe101

yes- exactly. Every other country on earth is better than us! they've all tolerated lockdown like good girls and boys by remaining miserable, eating their military supplied gruel, going out for a brisk, yet unenjoyable walk for exactly 60 minutes and not a second longer every day, never smiling at anyone or doing anything that could remotely be interpreted as challenging "the rules".
Brits on the other hand, just dont care people are dying- we buy curly wurlies with careless abandon, and a blatant disregard for ICU deaths.

I heard that someone in Manchester bought a curly wurly yesterday and it caused an entire ITU ward in London to perish - but do they care? do they heck! I'm sorry to say that if you live in the UK you are a heartless murderer who has not an ounce of human compassion or care for anyone but yourself! Shame on you.

That thread about a Wuhan style lockdown is utterly bonkers. The idiot who started it lives in a country with no lockdown at all. It’s the ultimate in goady dementing.

And yes, as you correctly note, class is the elephant in every room on here, just as in the rest of British society. God forbid that the lower orders should have some fun and pleasure in life and enjoy themselves with 'cheap plastic tat' and drinking (pas devant les enfants!) hmm

You forgot that as TAX PAYERS they're paying for it too because many of the lower orders are in jobs that have been furloughed like hospitality and should be out picking fruit or something because it's simply unacceptable that people like that get some help and support. THEY SHOULD HAVE WORKED HARDER.
🤪

Also, if you buy a trampoline you are ensuring that we will be locked down for another six months, minimum.

I'm just fed up of the ones who choose to find a thread which is primarily about those struggling with MH in lockdown, jump straight in saying covid-19 is the warmup and we've got all hell to come. Bastards!
I wonder if dementors are in lockdown alone? I'd pity anyone stuck with someone like that in this situation.