Has Covid-19 made you realise just how inherently selfish so many people are?

[Nicknamegoeshere]

It has me.
The world is a mess and most people only really care about themselves and their families.
Fed up to the back teeth of people trying to justify why they can't possibly do X, Y, and or Z.
Just be honest and say "Because I don't really care about passing this virus on, I'm not bothered about those more vulnerable than myself."

No. I've always known. I'm fundamentally distrustful and cynical about human nature and society en masse. There are of course some wonderful individuals out there, but the natural state for the vast majority of us, especially when threatened by an overarching matter, is one of deep self interest and self focus.

I think I’ve been more surprised at the stupidity / lack of awareness about what’s going on in the world. Reading posts on our local Facebook group is eye opening, they’ve just discovered that they can find out how many cases are in the locality and are amazed that there are actually cases of COVID nearby. Note that we were in tier 2 before this lockdown so there have been cases for a while.

But then I have to remind myself that some people are busy dealing with other shit in their lives and don’t watch the news or read the BBC website.

Yup as a school teacher whose DC is in a care home. Lockdown 2 means I see thousands of kids but not my own. I'm making a big sacrifice here -the only place I'm going to is school, not seeing DC or Dparents... I wonder how many of the thousands of kids and their families are making a similar sacrifice? Judging by the fact that teaching colleagues across the country say it's constant reminders in terms of wearing masks/wearing them properly in communal areas, I'm not overly confident.

@MercyBooth yes the continual gaslighting from government to teachers about 'the vulnerable' when we are the ones in normal times that support them in all sorts of ways whilst the government cuts support.

Yes, so many people supporting closing businesses and schools and devastating other people's finances and jobs and education and health and futures because it doesn't affect their own comfortable lives or finances and decreases their chances of getting a virus slightly

Yes, I agree with this. Those posters on here who want everyone to stay at home for the next year, seeing no-one, because that's what suits them.

@ArtieFufkinPolymerRecords I guess as a secondary teacher I must fall into that category for you as I believe the return to education has been negligent on the government's part. However lockdown 1 meant I didn't see my DC for 11 weeks, any lockdown wouldn't give me a cost time. My mental health collapsed in lockdown 1 and isn't great at the moment due to not seeing my child. However schools (I'm talking secondary here) are drivers of the virus, they could be made safer. I think they should go to rotas but not to make my life easier (it wouldn't) but because of community transmission and safety,

• any lockdown would mean I don't see DC

@SunshineOutdoors

I do think it’s more ‘natural human behaviour that is difficult to override’ than ‘inherently selfish’.

100%

Yes Ive noticed people using vulnerable people to emotionally blackmail others while not giving a fuck about them the rest of the time.

This.

It's always been the same and nothing new really. There have been a few good news stories around this year , but mostly it's every man or woman for themselves. People are selfish and inward looking and generally not very nice mostly. :(

@monkeytennis97 How come you can't see your DC? That must be so hard.

[quote Nicknamegoeshere]@monkeytennis97 How come you can't see your DC? That must be so hard.[/quote]
DC is in a care home (disabled), they currently have cases in the home but SS with lockdown 1 it is telephone or video calls (which he can't manage) only.

*as with lockdown 1

More than anything, I think people have been more willing to accuse others of selfishness when those others simply have a different view to their own.

It’s not selfish to want to protect your physical or mental health in the middle of a pandemic, yet people are accused of being selfish just because they want to see their loved ones. It’s no more selfish to protect your own family than it is to expect others to protect you.

I already knew that there are lots of people who only care about themselves.

What I am shocked by is the level of incompetence of our authorities and rulers, which filters down into schools and hospitals etc.

At our school, there have been so many covid cases, they don’t tell us anymore. They don’t tell us even when it’s in your dc’s bubble. I have to take my mum for cancer appointments so I need to know my household’s exposure. But it’s a secret. So guess what, do you think I’ll have any problems keeping secrets from/lying to the school when I feel the need? (Not about covid, about anything really).

I still can't get over the shield the vulnerable so the rest of us can get in with our lives thing. Chilling.

@Plantlife good to hear you are ok now. I think a lot about women from DV backgrounds as victim myself years ago, so understand how awful this lockdown is for them

It's because the world is a mess that makes people shut down.

I still can't get over the shield the vulnerable so the rest of us can get in with our lives thing. Chilling

That is exactly what should be happening. The virus is low risk to the working age population and it is they that pay taxes that pay for the HSE. How many hundreds of thousands of families left destitute is acceptable to you? People should have the right to work if they want to. Far more people will die from missed cancer screenings, domestic abuse, poverty, heart attacks, mental health issues than ever will of COVID but we should only care about those vulnerable to COVID? A balanced approach is needed. Would those tapping away happily from home be willing to take a 30% pay cut to support those who have lost their jobs? I doubt it.

For me it's more the people who expect the hardships they are enduring to be recognised, and get angry and aggressive if they are not, while totally refusing to recognise others hardships.
It's the justification for poor behaviour, it's ok to shout at the shop assistant if you're stressed about covid or your finances today.
Many had the attitude for a long time that people in bad situations or poor are just useless and should be better at life, and that they have access to so much help they should stop moaning and spending all their money on wide-screen TVs and be grateful. Now a lot find themselves in a similar situation because of covid and realising how fast it can happen and how little help there is in reality. Suddenly it's not acceptable.
That thousands of care home residents go weeks without visits from families because they're too busy, but all of a sudden it's of vital importance and ok to shove care workers to attempt to achieve it.

I don't much like other people at the best of times. This has only reinforced what i knew and thought before. Im actively avoiding people not just because of the virus but because i don't want to have to deal with them.

The things that have got me most have been the people saying they support the nhs most whilst simultaneously trying to set up street socials for the Thursday clap and then berating anyone who doesn't attend (often because family members working for the nhs have said they don't like the propaganda), people who volunteered to help the elderly and then used it as a social call to get around lock down rules and were pictured in thd local papers not socially distanced but thats ok cos they were helping the vulnerable (the fact they are the very people who should have been socially distancing more than anyone else is beside the point), the endless teacher bashing and saying why cant the teachers do more its not in any way my responsibility to educate my own child (children who do best at school throughout the world are generally the ones who have parents who engage with and support their child's education outside school), people who still dont get the link between economic deprivation and covid cases because of an inability to either work from home or to take time off work and instead label these people as selfish rather than disadvantaged, people navel gazing about deaths when its about hospital capacity and how this is a long term problem, the whole north south divide generally.

I can't be fucked with the monumental short sightedness of any of it.

I am quite happy away from it all. Thats not selfishness that just having had a gutful of idiocy.

We are inherently selfish, but let him without sin cast the first stone.

I still can't get over the shield the vulnerable so the rest of us can get in with our lives thing. Chilling.

Genuine question but why?

@monkeytennis97 I'm so sorry to hear that, I can only begin to imagine how incredibly tough thst must be. My ex-husband attempted to use the first lockdown as an excuse not to continue shared custody and three weeks without the boys was hard enough so it must be awful. I hope you get to see DC soon xx

I am not surprised that people strive to look after their own; that could be how the human race survives.

I have been taken aback at the level of sacrifice that some people seem to require of others in order to maintain their own illusion of safety.