Are people getting scarier/weirder or AIBU?

[Kitkat930]

Based off a couple of examples lately…

We were in our local town on Saturday around midday when two grown men dressed in Halloween outfits walked by, staring in shop windows and sitting on benches. One was in the scream mask, the other in a Jason mask. I was just in a coffee shop with my family when I saw them and I felt absolutely terrified 🤣

Then walking around a local reservoir today with my DH and baby a man walked past staring at us and looking very unhinged. And I mean STARING. And almost smirking like he knew he was unnerving me. I even said to DH was he staring or did I imagine it and he said he was about to go over to him he was staring that much.

I know I’m probably paranoid but I generally don’t like going anywhere on my own now. I’ve deleted the news app to help with feeling a bit more positive but whenever I do go out I’m met with weird encounters like that. Probably just my luck 😂 Towns are always filled with strange characters I guess… And for the vast majority people are really nice it’s just an uneasy feeling I have about society lately

Confirmation bias, you see what you think you’re going to see.

Bet you didn’t even notice all the people who weren’t weird/scary/in strange costumes.

Not sure about scary but I seem to always have loads of people just randomly coming up to me in shops or striking up conversations for no reason. I think I just have one of those friendly faces. So for example I was just looking at some pizzas for my ds in the coop bargain section and some man just randomly starts telling me how good these pizzas are, that they are his absolute favourite etc. I once had a distraught old lady come up to me in the street and grab me telling me her dog had just died etc, a woman in the supermarket had me getting various tomatoes down from the top shelf for her to compare. People just seem to start up conversations when I am just minding my own business. I also have to do home visits as part of my job and some of the absolute strange people/ homes I meet is absurd. I can't go into too many details as it would be outing but things like satanic stuff, full size skeletons, mannequins just really weird homes and they just invite you in to sit next to a skeleton as if it's the most normal thing ever. It really freaks me out.
I also think drug abuse on the street is rife. People acting strangely I think are often on drugs/ paranoid etc.