Why are people covidiots? What’s the psychology?

[Davespecifico]

I’m struggling to understand how families can watch the news, scroll Facebookand so on and not fail to see, over and over again, ‘stay home, save lives, protect the NHS.’

Really, what are they actually thinking? What goes on in their minds?

I am really worried even about my daily short walk or having to go to the supermarket. But I’m risk averse.

I wonder if there should be a new strategy to appeal to people who are more gung-ho and on the opposite end of the risk taking spectrum from me?

As someone put on another thread they’d be better off asking for unpaid volunteers to catch the virus. The same people would be up in arms about that.

Marsha - I reckon there’ll be lots of volunteers if it gets us out of lockdown. But the nanny state won’t let me, with my health history, I don’t think I’d be a candidate.

Why aren’t you worried about state control? Or mass hysteria? Or are you of the “death is worse than anything” camp?

I’m signing off for a bit because I have to do a million phone calls

Another problem with lockdown- can’t claim you’re busy 🤷🏻‍♀️

That made me laugh Lilac. Yeh I think death is pretty bad.

A lot of people are going to be very confused in a few weeks time when the message changes to 'go to work, save lives'

That’s probably why they’re not saying anything yet. People can’t deal with more than one message. Actually they can’t cope with one a lot of the time.

Living in a dystopia fully controlled by psychopaths is probably worse than death, since death is going to happen anyway, no matter what you do, it's inevitable.

Mumsnet is full of Nazis, Freemasons and Robots these days.

Still making me laugh. People are nuts.

Whilst there are undoubtedly people flouting the rules, I also find that the term "covidiots" is often bandied about by judgemental people lacking the imagination and empathy to envisage people living in situations wildly different to their own. So it's a combination of some people taking the mickey and others judging people or making up their own rules then berating people for "breaking" them.

It depends whether by "covidiots" you mean people flouting the government's actual guidelines, or people flouting some mumsnet posters' own OTT interpretation of the guidelines, which are being touted as fact.

A neighbour shouted at me across the road today, whilst I was out in the front garden pottering, that he doesn't see the point of the "Save the NHS" campaign because "they knew what they signed up for". To top this he then moaned about "bloody schools who fine you for taking a weeks holiday out of term time, deciding it's ok to let them have months off now".
This is the mentality of many. It's ingrained ignorance.
I cut him off and came in and put the news on. Mass graves being dug and bodies lowered in them. In New York. Today.

I'm a teacher, and proud to be on the rota for key worker's kids in school.
But crucially, my DD is an ITU nurse. She used to Skype me after her shift, but since the treated the first confirmed patient a month ago, she texts me to say she's ok. Why? Because her face is covered in pressure marks from the mask, goggles etc., and she doesn't want to upset me.
That's the reality. But trying to convince the ignorant and arrogant about this is a total and utter waste of time.

“ A neighbour shouted at me across the road today, whilst I was out in the front garden pottering, that he doesn't see the point of the "Save the NHS" campaign because "they knew what they signed up for".

My dad worked for the NHS. He’d say exactly the same.

“ Because her face is covered in pressure marks from the mask, goggles etc., and she doesn't want to upset me”

In case it helps, bepanthen seems to have more of a barrier property than other creams. And it’s not madly pricey.

I just wanted to add I'm not a complete misery guts, and I do get that one trip to b+q or wherever to stock up on paint or gardening stuff etc could make a real positive difference to peoples mental health, and giving them something positive to do to keep busy (instead of say drinking), it's the people that are in and out of such shops every day, as much for something to do as anything, that annoy/baffle me.

I think it's a range of reasons depending on the person.

• some people thrive on flouting "rules". I think they actually get a kick out of it.

• for others is just about self entitlement. The "I've bought a second home/caravan/campervan and I'm going to damn well use it".

• then the "its all about me" brigade. The people who will prioritise their own wants/desires over anything else. "I don't want to be in the city during lockdown with the kids so we are all off to Cornwall". I'm only doing what's best for my family - anyone would if they could and people are just jealous we can afford it.

• finally the "its all a fuss about nothing" tribe. For gods sake it's just the flu and I always spend Easter at the seaside and some silly virus that everyone's over reacting about isn't going to change that.

Fundamentally the shared underlying trait is selfishness.

They all know that they are in the wrong but have convinced themselves that doing what they want is justified in the same way hordes of people convinced themselves they needed 200 loo rolls even if it meant some people didn't have any.....

The only Covidiots I have come across are the ones cellotaping rants written on paper to lampposts about staying home, or on one day, people having a brawl outside (yes, particularly twatist I know).

To put that into context though, that makes about 99.5% of the people I have seen out this week to be abiding by the rules. I'm not sure where you live, but I would suggest moving when lockdown has lifted, or not concentrating on one persons idiotic behavioir out of the many more that you have seen.

We live in a national park and interestingly the only people coming to their second homes (most aren’t!) are the ones that don’t know the local infrastructure.

The local hospital is nicknamed The Morgue, and our GPs are being sued for a list too long to mention. (Most of the hospital staff are great but it has a terrible track record)

Also the area looks so pretty, so maybe they don’t check the local news where it mentions how badly we’re infected? They’re literally walking into a COVID infested village and valley, most of us have had it and yes quite a number have died.

I saw a second home owner who said “why isn’t everyone up here?”. His lack of understanding what most people feel - which is we hate the rules but rather that than be dead - was just crazy.

It’s also the brashness of it - they think no one will mention why are you here?! Crazy, honestly - and putting their kids in harms way

I think there's a general feeling that the reason things are so bad at the minute is because the government were slow to react, they have seriously underfunded the nhs for years, they haven't followed other more successful models of dealing with the virus, they're not testing a anywhere near enough and not supplying sufficient ppe to those on the front line.

If the media want to pin the blame on people sitting in a park or taking a walk around Whitby fair enough but it's not really that simple is it.

Also we don't know exactly what's going on with the 'covidiots' we see. Four people sitting together on Brighton beach might be from the same household our for their daily allocated walk. It just gives people a sense of superiority to point out others not lockdowning as well as they are.

My last point is if I was around people all day anyway (eg if I worked on a supermarket checkout) I'd probably think that I was going to catch it anywhere so there's no point spending my one day off actively avoiding people.

mindproject

Living in a dystopia fully controlled by psychopaths is probably worse than death, since death is going to happen anyway, no matter what you do, it's inevitable

Mumsnet is full of Nazis, Freemasons and Robots these days

I can’t tell if you are a satire account 🤷🏻‍♀️

People can’t comprehend something THIS massive so the “it’s fine” defences come up, at least that’s what I think about the previously fairly sensible people I’ve seen who are now firmly ostriching about the pandemic

Thanks for this thread, it’ll be interesting reading - I’d not heard of normality bias before and am looking forward to reading the rest.

They have the same mentality as panic buyers, just inverted. It's about control.

Panic buyers try to control the situation by being over prepared. Probably the same people who are disinfecting everything in sight, washing their hands 80 times a day, posting photos of people who aren't following the rules to their liking.

Covidiots are control freaks too, but they try to control the situation by pretending it isn't really happening and that everything is ok. They can't stand the thought of things changing so they bury their heads in the sand and continue on as they were. They like to think they are happy go lucky types, but they are just as mad and uptight as the panic buyers. If someone near them gets sick, they are likely to veer off into panic buyer mode.

The rest of us are taking extra precautions and following the rules, but we are not buying 80 packs of toilet roll and rubbing bleach into our hands. We are the goodies. Hurrah for us.

I would hazard a guess at having an imbalanced sense of mortality. Same reason more secondary school age people have more road related accidents going to/from school. Compared with primary who are, generally, accompanied by an adult.

Not exactly ‘I’m all right, Jack’ but similar.

Maybe, at the other end of the scale is the acute reality of mortality?

Something else has occurred to me today as well, I've been to my volunteer place for a few hours, tied it in with picking up some shopping and walked so got my exercise.
I'm so totally fucked off right now and really feel like going out and flouting the rules not just dropping off a few essentials I've picked up for a friend but going in for a drink and a catch up because of the arseholes I've seen today. Walking me off the pavement as they can't possibly get in single shitting file, neighbours freely wandering in and out of each others houses, kids playing on the farmers field - and not of the same household, two cars full of lads belting down a country lane (far busier than normal with walkers/cyclists) treating it like a rally stage, giving shop staff abuse because it's limited to one visit per household per day and they've already been in but just threaten and bully their way in and walk out without paying safe in the knowledge that the police will take days to respond anyway, that one is barred for shoplifting already but who's going to stop him? I wouldn't if I worked there. Gangs of teens with one dog between them roaming around. Today has by far been the worst I've seen since lockdown for blatant rule breaking and not caring and it does make me wonder why the fuck I'm bothering when no fucker else is? Those are the wankers my sister will be looking after in 10-14 days when they've got it, and they'll probably be dishing out crap then too.
I won't do it, but the feeling is there, the anger, the annoyance and frustration and I think for some what I've seen today would be enough to tip them over into doing something they normally wouldn't through sheer frustration.

@LilacTree1, thanks for the cream advice, I'll tell her.
For what it's worth, regarding your dad, my DD is the same, she has treated many patients in ITU with far more deadly diseases than this one.
What my neighbour fails to get though, is that if people don't stay in, then admissions will increase beyond the capacity. There won't be ambulances to take sick patients in, no beds for those that get one, nor enough staff to do 'what they signed up for". That's why I get so frustrated with people who flout the guidelines.

Ignorance is usually bliss. Right now, it's bloody dangerous.

I have a friend who says she ‘doesn’t buy into the current narrative’ when she text me to ask to meet up. I think she thinks it’s all a big cover up for something else but she hasn’t told me what.
She did reference the petition to the government to revoke the Coronavirus bill that disappeared. Does anyone know anything about this? I wasn’t sure what to say. She’s also an antivaxxer. I’m not really sure what to say to her (and we didn’t meet obvs)