We are fucked

[WindChimeTinkle]

The country is falling apart, mass unemployment looming, unrest, mental health crisis, education of a generation screwed, people in care homes isolated and alone......what the fucking hell is going on. I can't take anymore

Hey, @MaxNormal. You need to calm down a bit.

You're starting to sound a bit like The Four Yorkshiremen yourself with your doom and gloom and no-one ever in the whole history of the world had it as bad as we do know,

Now, you know that's silly.

You can't dismiss everyone's experience because, in the end, you will dilute your own with lots of people just eye rolling at your posts because for every one who comes on to agree, there'll be hundreds of others thinking, 'here we go again' and not really listening to you.

It's not great now. It hasn't been great in the past but the point people are making is, it got better in the past and so will this.

Of course, if you're happier shouting out that 'we're all doomed, doomed I tell you'-then fill your boots, if it makes you feel happier but it doesn't help a lot of people who believe, with reason, that it will pass.

Stop yelling and fucking and blinding at people though.

It's best not to start swearing and angrily telling people your whole life story over a thread on a parenting website. Save your self the hassle. You will feel better if you walk away! Don't get over involved enough you start telling everyone your trauma.
Go and have a chat with a nice friend.
Forgot to say. This was for @grenouilleescargot

I guess I was just trying to get across that comparing war times to this latest health crisis doesn't help anyone. Yes, my nan didn't see her two younger sons for years during the war and that was tough , but so is this. It's just tough for people in a different way. Maybe people will think this is wrong and we do learn from history but if I were about to lose my home or my job I wouldn't be looking back at what went on 80 odd years ago how ever bad it was back then. We can only live on the present and people will suffer now because of this pandemic.

@Pulloutbed

It's best not to start swearing and angrily telling people your whole life story over a thread on a parenting website. Save your self the hassle. You will feel better if you walk away! Don't get over involved enough you start telling everyone your trauma. Go and have a chat with a nice friend.

Well said 👏👏👏 how did it get so aggressive so quickly!!!

Looking at this thread, what seems more worrying is the speed at which people turn on each other in anger, like those around you should either realise they arent actually miserable, or they arent as miserable as you so they should shut up, or they arent as miserable as someone 70 years ago and should also shut up.

This virus seems to have eradicated peoples empathy and sympathy. We are all being pitted against each other and taking our anger and frustration out on each other. When people lose jobs, or houses, or family, or break the rules because they are mentally broken, there is a heap of people here ready to tell them how selfish they are.

We are awful to each other. That's why we are fucked.

Yeah, I think the next few years will be very bad I'm afraid. With this and a No-Deal Brexit I think England is heading for very low period. I read Viv Albertine's description of Northern cities in the 1970s as full of rubbish and closed shops and I think that's the future that awaits our city centres for at least a the next 5 years.

I mean, we could go for a radical shake up where find a way to move poorer people and those on ordinary incomes into city centres and change around the way we live, and rebuild our economy by focusing on innovation in renewable energy, technology and science areas which Britain does well and maybe support people in bringing empty properties back into use to help house more people....

Hahahaha! What am I talking about?! We have a Tory government, who will keep doing exactly the same thing, because it works for them and their mates. They'll profit off short-selling the failing economy, their mates will keep building luxury flats that no one can live in, the streets will fill with homeless people and empty broken properties no one's allowed to make into affordable homes and so forth. And people will keep voting for them because 'they're a safe pair of hands'

@Zaphodsotherhead sorry but I was in an area massively affected by foot and mouth and it was absolutely nothing like this.

@MaxNormal

I'm so sick of this Pollyannaish bullshit. How does reminding yourself that reams of peasants died of the plague or that people had the bejesus bombed out of them decades ago help anyone when they've lost their job, the economy is screwed, and they can't get another one?

People need to get their heads out of their arses, actually pay attention, look around, and see what is happening to other people who actually exist and are having a shit time in the actual present.

Well said

@rashalert eh? I swore at one person, once, who called me scum. Has this thread been my finest hour? No. But withouth discussing my personal situation in more detail than I'd care to, we've been badly affected and it's gone on longer than we really have resources to cope with and things are very grave for us just now.
So yeah... sorry everyone for being a dick but that "walk in the park" comment just sent me over the edge.

YANBU. It's shit! The future is terrifying...

@SqidgeBum

Looking at this thread, what seems more worrying is the speed at which people turn on each other in anger, like those around you should either realise they arent actually miserable, or they arent as miserable as you so they should shut up, or they arent as miserable as someone 70 years ago and should also shut up.

This virus seems to have eradicated peoples empathy and sympathy. We are all being pitted against each other and taking our anger and frustration out on each other. When people lose jobs, or houses, or family, or break the rules because they are mentally broken, there is a heap of people here ready to tell them how selfish they are.

We are awful to each other. That's why we are fucked.

Have you not been on MN long? Posters have been rounding on each other at the slightest excuse for the 10 years I’ve been here . MN really needs to be taken with a pinch of salt (practical threads aside)

We are where we are with a limited amount of energy. I'm not sure expending it ranting about history is helping anybody.

@moose62

Yes it is terrifying and frightening but really we need to pull ourselves together and find ways to cope. Wallowing doesn't help!

This 1000 times. We are grownups.

It is shit right now. It's been shit for the last 8 months and we have no idea how much longer it will be shit for. We know it's going to be 'months', let's not kid ourselves and it could even be 'years'.

I think that is the point of these constant war references - WWII lasted for six years (and one day). Years of shit as opposed to, say, 18-24 months of shit. In this moment, it may seem as though the war was 'worse' because it went on longer than we realistically expect the pandemic to.

Mustering up a little spirit seems like the most constructive way to get through this. Obviously, there are people who would be genuinely unable to. But many of us are not going without 'needs' (which are different to 'wants') or are not bereaved. It's probably in our best interests to try and find a bit of cheer.

When we are in our dotage, we can tell the youth of tomorrow that 'You think you've got it bad? I lived through a PANDEMIC!'

My parents and grandparents lived through WW2 with both my parents evacuated for a year because of the constant bombing. They then survived rations and a national depression with the country coming back from all that. Can you actually imagine hiding in shelters from bombs for months on end in this country?
For me this puts it all in perspective. The restrictions we have now are absolutely nothing in comparison and by and large these are the people dying on a regular basis from COVID now, seems a tad unfair to me.
So if I can’t visit my friends house or go to the pub, gym or similar I’m ok with that.

The darkest moment is before the dawn.

We are not at the darkest moment. We have Brexit looming in January and it's finally dawned on our government ministers that Europe can't be smirked into submission. Australia has just pointed out that our "amazing deal" with them is a fiction.

I can't see how we're not going to have a very grim few years ahead. We were already going to have to try to recoup the subsidizing of so many businesses and employees, and now our incompetent government has to try to negotiate trade deals from a position of obvious weakness. I can imagine most countries going "Nah, we're good for Rolls Royces and shortbread actually. When you want your essential fuel, enough food to feed your population, etc, just give us a bell..."

Our grandparents went to bed at night ,not knowing if a bomb would drop and they would be blown apart in their sleep.

Interestingly my 103 year old relative told me the other week that she thinks all this is worse than the war. And she lost a premature baby in an air raid because the midwife couldn't get to her in time. Clearly there was a lot of suffering, and not just from the people on the front line. No-one had a clue when the war would end and what the outcome would be or mean, or if their husband or son would ever be coming home again. It cost the country a lot of money and no-one knew how it would recover economically. Severe constant stress. But she said that at least people had each other to rely on for both practical help and emotional support. There was the camaraderie, you had your neighbours there and knew them all, your family lived in the next street. You were able to help the war effort in some way.

Now we feel helpless, waiting for the scientists to discover a vaccine. We can't all go and work in the lab the same way they went to work in the munitions or parachute factories. People feel powerless to do something to help "the cause". We can't see anyone to keep the community spirit going (although facetime etc does help, but it's not the same). And the feckin' pubs aren't open. No equivalent of a singsong of White Cliffs of Dover round a pub piano.

It's worse than the wars in some ways, and not as bad in others. What worries me is the social unrest, as others have said. I see the non-mask wearing, demonstrating COVID-denier "freedom fighters" as the disrupters of the peace. And disruption of the peace is the last thing we need at the moment. There is now no "coming together" as a country as there was in the wars. You do wonder had there been social media at that time whether we would have won the bloody war, or whether most of the country would have refused to fight or support the war claiming it was all a fecking conspiracy and that nazis didn't exist. We'd probably be speaking German now if social media had existed then I reckon.

The people saying we are not fucked, are, I feel, forgetting the snowball effect. We are globally financially all interlinked. Every little thing has a knock on effect which eventually comes back to bite us in a big way. We have not seen the end of this yet, not by a long shot.

@2389Champ *Has anyone noticed that those making the decisions about lockdowns, benefit payments and job losses are all in the public sector with job security, pensions and etc. The vast majority of them do not need to worry about losing their jobs/pensions and so on. However, the majority of people that their decisions impact are lower paid private sector workers. I do not know what the solution is, but "risk" must seem different to the different sectors."

I think you're forgetting how much the government is spending at the moment. That will need to be paid for. Oh, believe me, those who work in the public sector are all too aware of the fact that the chopping block's coming for them in a year or two. And in the mean time we sacrifice ourselves at the altar of the education or health service or police.

I will follow the rules ( always have done) and remember those that gave their lives in all the wars and feel very grateful that they did what they did , but this pandemic will also bring so much unhappiness and poverty and heart ache too. You can't compare them really , but that doesn't mean I can't also be upset for those suffering now because of the measures in place. It's turned people's lives upside down. The restrictions are not the same as war time of course, but it will cause so many problems long term and this worries me. People are resilient , but if you lose your income and your home it's still devastating and you can't think ' oh that's ok because I'm not being bombed here' that's just ridiculous isn't it?
I am proud of my late parents and their stories about WW2 were very shocking , but they would also agree with me that this is also bad and have sympathy with people and members of my own family caught up in bad times through no fault of their own.

@DownToTheSeaAgain

I'm watching the Handmaids Tale. Watching another dystopian mess helps put this one in perspective.

I'm re-reading the Hunger Games and the prequel to it for the same reason!

We arent fucked. Ppl will lose jobs we have a benefit system in place. It will be the same as it was b4. Working from home til normality resumes. Isolate the vulnerable and elderly everyone else carry on as usual. Lockdown are silly

At the end of the day, this is the hand we've been dealt. Whether you favour Pollyanna, or running in circles screaming, or making statements like "I cant cope with this much longer" it makes fuck all difference to anyone except you. So you need to find your own way through because there is no rescue party on the way.

[quote MaxNormal]@rashalert eh? I swore at one person, once, who called me scum. Has this thread been my finest hour? No. But withouth discussing my personal situation in more detail than I'd care to, we've been badly affected and it's gone on longer than we really have resources to cope with and things are very grave for us just now.
So yeah... sorry everyone for being a dick but that "walk in the park" comment just sent me over the edge.[/quote]
Fair enough @MaxNormal I think we're all getting frayed at the edges.

I'm sorry things are grave for you-you have cause to be distressed and I sincerely hope that a glimmer of light arrives for you soonest.

I was being a bit of a dick myself with my post and I have no excuse!

@GirlCrush

Suddenly the lowly paid workers are the ones with secure jobs

Carers,driving and retail are good jobs to be in right now, though traditionally these jobs were looked down on

How times are changing!

I agree with pp. we will bounce back.

The Financial Times did an article today which had a different view. Many of those roles are contract staff who have no rights/guaranteed set hours.