To feel so down and sad about what Covid and Brexit are doing to our society

[whatmakesmesad]

I feel so down, I’m struggling to feel connected with my friends and family. I feel increasingly that everything covid and Brexit (and soon Scottish independence as it affects me) have brought to our country has made people increasingly self centred, less compassionate, less tolerant. I feel like these issues have come between friends and families, I don’t even hold a particularly strong view, but where I do have views I try to make sure they’re well informed yet considerate. I feel like so much of what I loved about living here has gone, I feel like so many of these issues have come in the way of relationships I valued because people feel so strongly about it and won’t acknowledge another way.

I want to leave but I have nowhere to go, I don’t know if it’s me or if it’s everywhere. I don’t see a happy future here amongst people who really so often don’t think beyond themselves, and who can’t be tolerant of other views for the sake of a relationship. It’s making me so sad. AIBU?

Is it two different things though, how you feel about connecting with your friends and family and how you feel about brexit, the pandemic and society?

It’s near impossible to connect with people at the moment. When people do again people will be so happy that I doubt people will talk politics as much.

The loudest voices online won’t be as loud when things start getting back to normal. I think because we aren’t out we can’t see all the kindness and generosity that has been going on.

Big hug!

Thank you @Gwlondon I need one, very unmn I know. Maybe I didn’t phrase it right, I guess what I mean is that I feel it’s coming between us. People with such vocal views with no (substance or) care for how it makes other people (they supposedly care about) feel. I am really starting to see people differently, not just because their views are different to mine but because in al these scenarios we face there are winners and losers, and all they care about is making sure they are not the loser at whatever cost necessary to someone else.

I hope not. I think it’s going to be easier when people meet and actually talk about how the pandemic impacted themselves. At the moment we only get snippets and I think empathy will be easier generally when we speak to friends and family.

I hope people aren’t thinking about themselves. I think some people are inclined to look at the details and some look at the bigger picture. Often we can’t recognise that when someone is giving their opinion.

I hope we get back to more empathy.

I've seen a huge amount of local (and beyond) effort from people to help each other out and try to do good and positive stuff during the pandemic.

I'm sorry you are feeling down about everything. Covid will be over and we can return to meeting our friends and family, going out and socialising as we did before.

As far as Brexit is concerned, I voted Leave and I'm very happy that we're at last out of the EU. Some things may be tougher for a while but I'm confident that we will ultimately do well.

The Prime Minister won't be giving approval for another Scottish indyref any time soon so you can forget about that at the moment.

It's natural that people have different views and opinions but it doesn't have to mean the end of a friendship/relationship. I have known my best friend for 55 years this year. She votes Labour and I vote Tory. We have the occasional discussion on the subject but it has never affected our friendship. We agree to disagree.

Here's to a a Covid free future.

Some people can start a fight in an empty room. If you’re constantly jarring with friends over things like this then perhaps it’s time to revisit your friendships and whether you’re still a good or valuable friend to them and they to you. I have close friends of all political stripes, pro-Leave and pro-Remain, various affinities to different socioeconomic ideologies, different opinions on management of Covid and so on and we manage to remain friends because of a general understanding that we’ve all arrived where we have as a result of different lived experiences and interests, but through good deal of reading and thought. Nobody feels the need to call anybody else an idiot or selfish, even if they don’t personally agree with everything their friend thinks. Believe it or not, most people do think “beyond themselves”: not agreeing with you or not prioritising the same things you do does not automatically mean somebody is self-centred or lacking compassion.

ComtesseDeSpair

Exactly, you said it better than I did. It's perfectly possible to retain a friendship with a person with opposing views to your own.