Is anyone else worried about how COVID is changing society?

[9ofpentangles]

When the virus first broke out, my elderly neighbour said, "this is going to change the world!"

When he said that, I thought to myself, "Good, no more traffic, no more pollution, people being courteous and giving you space in shops, on the streets, less materialism, people starting to think about what's really important."

However, there is an uglier side to the pandemic which is becoming increasingly apparent.

Before, we had busybodies, who complained about dog turds and the like and reported people who did not pick it up.

Now, we are having complete strangers having confrontations with people not wearing masks or for having a cough - even though there are several valid explanations for both and a mask isn't the only way of providing protection and is pretty useless if people don't socially distance anyway.

People are shopping those with perhaps one extra person visiting their household while not questionning that we can have a whole throng of people within a commercial enterprise so long as there is a cardholder present.

We now have Track and Trace which is sold to us as another protection strategy but isn't anyone worrying that this might fall into the wrong hands or may continue even after COVID is no long a thread. After all, it is the law and people want to be good citizens, don't they?

I used to think conspiracy theorists were people in need of medication but even I am starting to question how the world is going and worrying that we may be at risk of becoming a police state long after this is over.

We won’t become a police state, no more than before covid anyway.

The biggest issue (imho) is lack of coherent leadership and the populism of opinion being as important as fact. There’s evidence of this on every side.

People have lost sight of the fact that it isn’t really covid in itself that’s the problem, anything producing large waves of intense pressure on a healthcare system over extended time periods would fuck us up. If 50% of the population all got appendicitis in the next three months we’d be up shit creek. The ripple effects affect the economy, wider society and infrastructure. Focussing on any one part does no one any favours and it has to be balanced carefully.

I don't think the leaders help at all but there are still too many not questioning them and just being carried away with the tide of contradictory rules and public opinion as if the previous rules happened and the previous opinions never existed. There is a kind of Orwellian doublethink about the whole thing and an almost fascist mentality in wider society of doing COVID right. We've had it a bit with other big issues, such as to do with environment but this is off the scale

If you think the fascist mentality is new and due to COVID, you haven't been paying attention over the past 4 years. Those seeds have been growing for a while. People have voted for them to grow.

The way we jump out of the way of each other now is going to take some readjusting to post Covid.

Before, we had busybodies, who complained about dog turds and the like and reported people who did not pick it up.
I disagree with this part of your post. People who don't pick up after their dogs are scum.

I see zero evidence of moving towards a police state. The police have been very light touch about the pandemic. The government have introduced restrictions that have been similar to other countries, and the restrictions were largely lifted over the summer.

I’m not entirely convinced by your reasoning tbh. It may not be the case with you but I’m increasingly finding that people who are vocal about others not questioning authority enough have very little in the way of offering an alternative.

There is a pandemic that is pushing our infrastructures to their limits and beyond. As things stand I have not seen a reasonable, coherent counter plan to the ones that we already have.

Without the restrictions currently used what do we actually do? Something that balances the economic needs, health needs, industry needs - everything. What we have is certainly not perfect and elements are downright scandalous (testing, track and trace - things other countries have proven can be done efficiently. There’s no excuse here other than ineptness) but what’s the alternative?

We don’t have time for the luxury of just lamenting the awfulness of it all. We need actual action in real time.

If your local hospital is telling you in clear language they are at capacity what do you do with that information if not implement measures to try and mitigate that?

Not really, the world had survived pandemics before and we'll do it again.

The single biggest curtailing of civil liberties in decades has been implemented without being questioned.
We've given up our right to our children being properly educated, to go out to work to earn money to feed our families, to see our loved ones.
All that was needed was a pandemic - health fears trump all it seems.

It may well be that the changes (including to legislation) are justified but we'll never know without a reliable source of objective information and analysis based on fact.
We're reliant on a partisan media peddling hysterical headlines, self-serving-politicians and (ffs) social media.

It may well be that the changes (including to legislation) are justified but we'll never know without a reliable source of objective information and analysis based on fact

Objective information and analysis based on fact is historically only really possible after the fact. It’s unrealistic to expect that level of assurance in the middle of an emergency and we are very much still in the throes of this pandemic.