AIBU to think we are edging worryingly close to anarchy?

[Noras]

Am I unreasonable to believe that we are 2 or 3 steps away from anarchy?

Just that really. We see endless footage of quite aggressive and in the open. Shop lifting. People seem to have no shame eg driving over parkland or chucking rubbish out of car windows. Kids ran amok in Cornwall. People decide to live in caravans anywhere and just poo in parkland. Fly tipping is rife.
People freely wal: around the streets under the influence of drugs. People go to upmarket gyms with ankle tags and no sense of shame. People are more abusive and rude.

I’m inclined to agree. For many people, working hard no longer equates to a good life. When you feel like whatever you do isn’t enough to get you ahead in life, it’s quite easy to see how you’d have no respect for the country around you and the idea of playing by the rules.

There will be a breaking point. The British have seen an incredible decline for the past 25 years to an almost unrecognizable country that alienates everyone and makes life unrelentingly shit.

What's the future?

Really? We’ve had a lovely Easter and been to lots of places, where everyone was really civilised. Are you sure that you haven’t just been watching too much social media?

People are becoming absolutely horrible

You jumped the shark with tag-wearers attending upmarket gyms 🤣🤣

I had to drive through the center of a large city today (that I usually manage to avoid!)

The driving standards are atrocious now. People openly looking at their phones while moving, driving straight through red lights, undertaking, and I think indicators and stopping distance have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

If it wasn't for the DC I'd be persuading DH that we should buy a woodland up north, build a house nearby and live out our hermit dreams. Maybe fill it with endangered animals and plants so the shits can't build the 325th ugly shoebox newbuild estate near us.

Get off social media. Around where I am (big, multicultural, slightly rough big city) there's loads of positives to see. Crime isn't happening more than it was 20 years ago despite what Reform et al want you to believe. In fact lots of types of serious crime has reduced.
Shopping lifting has gone up though and I do feel sorry for shop workers. More needs to be done to tackle that.
But the endless rolls of violence yoh are watching aren't helpful to you or anyone else and are being used to create discord.

In real life - last week there was a violent skirmish at Waitrose involving thumping shoplifter and security guard plus others trying to stop the man

our local coop is constantly under siege and raided

People are driving all over our local green space

I agree with you @Noras and I regularly frequent two major cities in the UK as well as several small towns, for work and family and friends.

The suburban town I live in near the M25 is renowned for being well-heeled.

Yet let me describe how our Sainsbury’s Local has evolved

2025: Exit door closed and toilet rolls / large bottles of soda placed in front of it to semi permanently block it off. This now creates one narrow entrance and exit to dissuade shoplifting

late 2025: A security guard is permanently employed to stand directly opposite from the narrow doorway.

Early 2026: A plastic barrier is placed from till to ceiling around the human checkouts, to stop people from vaulting it and stealing spirits from behind the counter

A month ago: Plastic barriers placed over the chocolate displays to dissuade the “scoop and take” thieves

All in the space of 12 months

And this is a town where house prices are high average etc

Youll get all the countrywide dwellers and the wind up folk on here saying “no OP I don’t recognise this you describe”

But I know , you know and many others know

I too have seen a huge increase in phone use while driving. People don't even try to hide it.

Was it really a violent skirmish?didn’t the worker throw a bit of broken Easter egg at the thief?

I can’t believe we are two steps away from anarchy, no. I do wonder if behavioural standards have declined though. Going on a train now almost always involves being subjected to loud noise from people playing music/social media with no headphones. Really anti social and entitled but I haven’t yet see as is anything about it so I suppose i don’t really have the right to feel annoyed.

Still, I see great behaviour too. Allowing people to go first, civil conversations when out and about, use of please and thank you etc…

I don't think we're on the verge of anarchy but the town I live in has deteriorated beyond recognition over the last 25 years, particularly since Covid. I want to move but everywhere else seems to have gone down as well.

There seems to be several reasons for the decline - everyone will say immigration, and that's definitely a factor, probably number one, but it's not the only one.

We seem to have a population of unhappy people with no purpose. I have no idea if there's anything we can do about it.

Shoplifting is rising because so much of it is organised crime. It’s not some poor mythical parent, needing to steal a loaf of bread. 🙄

It’s violent thugs clearing entire shelves, threatening and assaulting staff. But, until the police get a grip on this, it will just continue.

This country has had tough financial times before, but we didn’t have this sort of carry on. 🙄

The police say 80% of all crime is linked to drugs, so that’s obviously a huge factor.

I have also witnessed an increase in driving while on phones, running red lights, undertaking to get ahead etc. I’ve had front and rear cameras fitted in my car.

There's always been an element of anti social behaviour for the past 30-40 years. Remember 'joyriders'.. just popped in my head.. something you don't see now. We just forget. My mum (71) however says she has seen a massive decline in her lifetime.

i feel like these type of threads are Reform’s press office, pushing some kind of chaos theory. Life has never been - and never will be - perfect. There are poor people, angry people, homeless people, hungry people. There always have been. We are not close to anarchy.

I agree. It is the most British of anarchies - they're stealing Easter eggs and watching YouTube reels on the train without headphones... This shit is annoying. It is entitled. It shows a lack of awareness and respect.

It's not anarchy

I grew up in a rough area so I am kind of desensitised to a lot of this behaviour but I would say it’s becoming more common. There’s also less community in a lot of places. I don’t think we are on the brink of anarchy but I do think Britain isn’t as nice a place to live as it used to be. I now live in an objectively nicer place, but there’s less community and people are more wary of one another.

There is a lot of anti-social behaviour, even 'low-level' stuff like riding bikes and scooters on the pavement, littering, etc annoys me no end but I don't think we are close to anarchy

We see endless footage of quite aggressive and in the open.

I think this is your problem - media/social media footage is concentrated, can overwhelm and gives the impression that there is far more bad behaviour than there is in reality

Unless one lives in a very grim area most of us go about our daily business unmolested and unaffected by crime

Society is increasingly becoming more 'lawless' for want of a better word, not at anarchy yet but heading in that direction, certainly, unless people start changing - become more considerate and stop doom-scrolling! I'm glad I no longer live in a city, but there are plenty of anti-social incidents recorded on my local Nextdoor group.

But what is different from the sixties when there were was fighting on beaches between kids and the police or the eighties when there were several urban riots and other civil unrest? There was rubbish, vandalism and dog poo all over the place in the Northern city my grandparents lived in the seventies and eighties. We had a nice period of relative prosperity and calm in the nineties.

I don't think the UK is an outlier in terms of a decline in public civility, or significant segments of the public doing whatever they want regardless of the negative impact to others. There are many factors, but most recently COVID seems to have marked a palpable decline. A lot of this stuff isn't illegal, though - or if it is it probably isn't worth prosecuting on an individual level. It's the kind of teenage "I DO WHAT I WANT!" rebellion that used to get slapped with an ASBO (at most, and dependent on factors like social class, connections, and and money) thirty years ago, only now more people of all ages are doing it.

These situations typically have not improved overall in places that have relatively recently put Reform-style hybrid right wing populist autocratic to kleptocratic governments in place, though.

You are being driven closer to anarchy by people who accuse you of being far right when you think that basic standards should be a thing.