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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think everything is getting worse?

138 replies

francesfrankenfurter · 28/05/2022 12:41

I watched the British Olympics opening ceremony this morning in 2012. It was only 10 years ago, but it seems a different world. It was such a hopeful time with a public mood of feeling proud of our country.

Now everything seems to be getting worse. The economy, cost of living crisis, crime, housing, corruption amongst MPs, poor public services, etc etc. Every day brings more gloom and doom and the public mood seems to be, things can only get worse.

AIBU

OP posts:
MelonsMelonsMelons · 28/05/2022 17:58

There are good times, and less good times, and sometimes bloody awful times. That’s life, not much point getting down about it. Just make the best of what you have and the opportunities you’re given.

francesfrankenfurter · 28/05/2022 17:59

@axolotlfloof that surprises me that none are chains. Do you live in a very posh area?or an area with high levels of Asian people? These are the only areas I see without nearly all chains.

OP posts:
Kris02 · 28/05/2022 18:43

People have been worrying and complaining about all those things for...well, forever. Roman writers raged about corrupt senators, the cost of bread, the rampant crime. So did Samuel Pepys. Twas ever thus.

We are incredibly lucky in so many ways. For a start, pretty much every generation before this one lived under the shadow of war. Today, a global war seems very unlikely. Russia hasn't the power. And the Chinese don't want a showdown with the USA (especially since much of the world would side with America). As for a war in Europe, that's unthinkable.

Also, don't overlook technological progress. Who knows what miracles we'll invent in the coming decades – drugs that slow (or even reverse) ageing, cancer cures, glorious virtual worlds, mood-enhancing drugs, lab grown meat, nanotech.

For me, the two big worries are global warming and birth rates. The world is ridiculously overcrowded. In fact, the explosion in the world's birth rate has been the biggest disaster of the last 200 years. Thankfully, it is declining in most places. The exception is Africa, which has the highest birth rate in the world. In fact, Africa's birth rate is so high that the population is going to double by 2050. When global warming gets worse, that booming young population is going to head for Europe, massively destabilizing the continent. People in the developed world need to stop being so greedy and selfish, and people in Africa need to stop having so many children.

The things you describe ARE problems, but seen from a God's eye view they're petty. I was a child in the 1980s and remember vicious criminals beating up old women. I remember people complaining about sleazy politicians (jesus, Boris Johnson only had a few glasses of wine with work colleagues ffs). Stephen Pinker is right – if you could choose to live at any time in human history, you'd choose now. Believe it or not, we're probably living in a golden age!

GoodnightRain · 28/05/2022 19:09

It's not all bad. Rich people are getting richer -so there is that.

Mia85 · 28/05/2022 19:22

francesfrankenfurter · 28/05/2022 17:08

A similar argument in favour of equal marriage rights was given by Mr Schermers in W. v. The United Kingdom.58 He found that the fundamental human right underlying Article 12 ECHR should also be granted to same-sex couples, even though that was not the issue in that case. He was of the opinion that the right to marry and to found a family is of paramount importance for the individual and denial of this right would mean condemnation to solitude and loneliness. Schermers advocates that there must be strong arguments to justify such condemnation. He also discusses the principle of proportionality and the point often made that public order would be disturbed if persons of the same sex could found a family, but doubts whether that is a valid argument because it would be unacceptable discrimination if only those who are able to procreate had the right to family life. Schermers finds very little on that side of the scale to justify the discrimination against the individual interest of same-sex couples. This is similar to the views of judges Rozakis, Spielmann and Jebens in Schalk and Kopf concerning Article 14 ECHR and the robust justifications needed.

https://www.elevenjournals.com/tijdschrift/ELR/2017/3/ELR201770100033006

https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/8851/Europe-and-LGBT-rights-in-the-UK/pdf/EuropeanddLGBTrightssinthee_UK.pdf

The second link is to show how much the European court of human rights has been instrumental in protecting lgbt people in the UK. It is very recently that lgbt people have had civil rights here.
That is one thing I don't see going backwards.

None of that supports what you said which was: You do know we only introduced gay marriage because of the EU human rights courts. The government fought the case. We were forced to introduce this.

In fact the links that you have posted show how slow the European Court of Human Right has been to recognise same sex relationships. Read the first paragraph of the article you linked which sums it up nicely. International and European courts have seen it as 'too sensitive' and have been waiting for consensus to build. There was no court case which forced the UK to recognise gay marriage.

The UK has been ahead of the curve on recognising gay couples' right to become parents, have a civil partnership, marry etc. All of these have come because campaigners have won the political argument and taken the country with them. That's important. You only need to look at Roe v Wade to see the fragility of judicially imposed social change.

carefullycourageous · 28/05/2022 19:40

GoodnightRain · 28/05/2022 19:09

It's not all bad. Rich people are getting richer -so there is that.

Also the government has successfully reversed the improvements in life expectancy, saving money in the pensions pot <trebles all round>

Thatswhyimacat · 28/05/2022 19:44

I'm sure it's somehow Labour's fault.

ByTheSea · 28/05/2022 19:47

I think 2016 was a turning point for the US and UK and Brexit and the Trump election pointed us in ugly and backward directions.

Thatswhyimacat · 28/05/2022 19:48

@WishILivedInThrushGreen really? Do you mind me asking when that was your parents were doing that? Just because my Mum didn't go to university and worked odd cash in hand jobs, my parents bought a 3 bedroom semi detached aged 21 on my dad's just-out-of-uni salary. That was 1987?

roarfeckingroarr · 28/05/2022 19:49

francesfrankenfurter · 28/05/2022 12:47

There are always individual things or issues going wrong. The riots were about racist policing in London.
But now it feels like everything is going wrong.

Around here they were about looting and violence. It was terrifying, old women were intimidated trying to get home, there is no excusing noble element

ATadConfused · 28/05/2022 19:58

They are your thoughts YANBU to think whatever the hell you want to think.

but what is the point in your doom & gloom thread/thinking???

that never helped anyone

WishILivedInThrushGreen · 28/05/2022 20:08

Thatswhyimacat · 28/05/2022 19:48

@WishILivedInThrushGreen really? Do you mind me asking when that was your parents were doing that? Just because my Mum didn't go to university and worked odd cash in hand jobs, my parents bought a 3 bedroom semi detached aged 21 on my dad's just-out-of-uni salary. That was 1987?

Read my post.

ilovesooty · 28/05/2022 20:12

Thatswhyimacat · 28/05/2022 19:44

I'm sure it's somehow Labour's fault.

I'm sure posters wedded to the current government's values will be along soon to say so.

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 28/05/2022 20:18

francesfrankenfurter · 28/05/2022 15:45

You do know we only introduced gay marriage because of the EU human rights courts. The government fought the case. We were forced to introduce this.

That isn’t correct. 13 EU states still don’t recognise gay marriage.

Hurstlandshome · 28/05/2022 20:27

PloppyMouth · 28/05/2022 13:55

@francesfrankenfurter
Racist policing? How did stealing flatscreen TVs and Nike trainers help the cause?
I assume by racist policing you mean the lawful killing (majority 8-2 by a jury) of a guy waiving a gun at police when they were to intervene in a drug deal. 😂😂😂

'Waving a gun around' is so grossly inaccurate. Please educate yourself on the complexities of the 2011 riots, or don't bother talking about it at all.

Hurstlandshome · 28/05/2022 20:30

*'waving a gun at police'

OldWivesTale · 28/05/2022 20:45

10 + years of a Tory government

SlightlyGeordieJohn · 28/05/2022 20:47

carefullycourageous · 28/05/2022 19:40

Also the government has successfully reversed the improvements in life expectancy, saving money in the pensions pot <trebles all round>

No it hasn’t.

SlightlyGeordieJohn · 28/05/2022 20:49

This reply has been deleted

We've removed this post as it makes a generalisation that is derogatory.

NippyWoowoo · 28/05/2022 20:56

lightand · 28/05/2022 14:57

YANBU

Unpopular opinion.
We are not being as blest by God, as less and less people are Christian.

🙄

ilovesooty · 28/05/2022 20:58

the normal suspects

I take it you're in favour of the bill that now means protesting is a criminal offence?

Thatswhyimacat · 28/05/2022 21:10

@WishILivedInThrushGreen sorry I completely missed it!

I'm not sure it's massively helpful to compare the current day to the 60s, unless you don't believe things should have improved since over 50 years ago considering that was just after a golden age in science, technology and all kinds of things that promised a brighter future.

Carpedimum · 28/05/2022 21:11

You’re not wrong @francesfrankenfurter this a slippery slope. For the last two decades I’ve been reading all the predictions of the political, environmental, cultural and behavioural changes, universally amongst the authors, the future is not a cheery prospect.

comealongponds · 28/05/2022 21:15

YANBU

im in my mid 30s and it feels like my entire adult life has been one crisis after another with no time for recovery in between (mostly because of the Tories handling/creating of those crises). Banking/credit crisis followed by recession and years of Tory “austerity”, brexit, pandemic, cost of living crisis.

WishILivedInThrushGreen · 28/05/2022 21:16

@Thatswhyimacat
Err, ok ?!