To have to accept that many in this country just don’t give a shit about others?

[Fortheweekend]

I live in Essex which, like many areas has been heavily hit by Covid.
Just heard on the news that Essex Police have had to issue many, many fines last night to people having New Years Eve parties.
I really deeply saddens me that so many people just don’t give a toss about other people.
They can not see past their own noses. Can they not see or do they not give a shit about the long term costs of their actions? That this goes beyond the virus, that because the NHS is overwhelmed people with potential life threatening conditions such as cancer will be overlooked or diagnosis/treatments delayed as they will not be able to get appointments or appointments cancelled because of too many Covid cases in their hospitals.
That people such as those I work with who suffer from disabilities or people like my poor mum who has Alzheimer’s have been isolated for many, many months and many more to come because support groups open and they and their carers will and are suffering from terrible depression and mental health issues which cut deep and will probably never heal.
Do they not care that people like my 90 year old neighbour who is all alone is shit scared every single day because she feels that she will never be able to live out her last months/years with the freedom she had been used to and genuinely believes she will die alone, without help and never having the freedom to just pop to the shops for she fears she will get the virus.
It truly leaves me feeling nothing but despair as I don’t think we will ever control this virus if people don’t do as asked for the short while it would take.

I don't give a flying fuck about people outside of my family and friends. You know why? Because the British public are a bunch of rude, arrogant arseholes who wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire. What the fuck is there to care about? They can all fuck right off.

I think on the whole people look after their own interests. You have described all the very personal reasons that make you want to comply with restrictions. I'm not sure that is being selfless? People have many challenges in their lives and possibly equally concerning circumstances that shape their actions. I think it's easy to assume the worst about people.

I agree. I’m so sad with the number of my friends who deliberately break the rules. And I don’t mean little things. I mean refusing to self isolate after international travel. Travelling from the tier 4 for leisure even though it’s clearly against the law to do so. Having indoor play dates and moaning about school closing at the same time. It’s madness and it doesn’t matter what I think about the rules. It matters that people are not willing to make even tiniest sacrifices when so many people are dying or losing livelihoods.

I think most people are being considerate, a minority isn't and a sizeable minority genuinely don't understand the rules because the communication has been so terrible - I've had friends saying that perfectly intelligent family members, for example, have not understood that they have to isolate when someone in their household gets a positive test. It doesn't help that the management of all this is a shambles.

@CarolEffingBaskin

I don't give a flying fuck about people outside of my family and friends. You know why? Because the British public are a bunch of rude, arrogant arseholes who wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire. What the fuck is there to care about? They can all fuck right off.

Indeed- I concur. I do not owe a duty of care to anyone outside my immediate family.

Unless I physically drive car at someone with the intention to kill, I should not be made responsible for other peoples health.

I hear you. I stayed in and will continue to. But... to be young, fun loving and basically imprisoned for a year often not even allowed to see their so’s is a huge amount to unpack. Young people are hard wired to go and let off steam occasionally so that their energy is released in a good way. Watching “The Last Kingdom” reminded me that even a century ago Britons spent a lot of time in the Tavern drinking. I am not saying I agree with them but I do understand.

@CarolEffingBaskin

I don't give a flying fuck about people outside of my family and friends. You know why? Because the British public are a bunch of rude, arrogant arseholes who wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire. What the fuck is there to care about? They can all fuck right off.

Kind of ironic.

It has been nearly a year. That is a long long time for people to accept major restrictions in a supposedly free country. Human beings are notoriously bad at weighing up long term versus short term consequences (see: obesity, smoking, road congestion, vaccination). I am following the rules, but I can understand why younger people in particular may not be.

Anyone who now votes for the Conservative Party whilst Mr Johnson remains leader clearly does not.

There are many others besides them, and it is not a new trait.

I gave up expecting anything of the general public. I stick to the rules to protect my own family unit, and if that protects others then so be it. We only get deliveries, no mixing with anyone, wearing masks etc. If I or any of my family unit need the NHS, then I will not feel bad using it as I haven't contributed to it being on its knees.

As for the rest of you, gathering in parties at Christmas and New Year for example 'coz you have speshul reasons' you can fuck off. Its quiye liberating not giving a shit what anyone else does anymore. Mine are fine. Look to your own.

It’s been like that for such a long time, I think we just notice it more now as it affects more of us.

Those on benefits, disabled, asylum seekers etc were vilified for years. Other groups were tolerated or viewed with suspicion.

We now hear ‘just lock up the vulnerable’. Everyone e at each other’s throats, those on furlough, the 3m self employed.

We are not a very compassionate country.

And while we battle each other the wealthy profit from public money for PPE, T&T, cleaning hospitals, building schools etc.

OP, what do you want? They said two weeks to control this thing, the people gave that and more.

Maybe it’s just not possible to contain this thing effectively without a vaccine.

I think you are right.
There are people who are lonely for years and nobody cares about them but now it's affecting people they know suddenly the I'm alright jacks are making a fuss about it.

"Essex Police attend 300 Covid rule breaches over New Year"

population of Essex = 1.842 million
That's probably ~740,000 households.

300 households... but I guess you could suppose the average banned gathering was 10 households mixing, so 30k households involved.
And suppose only half of the violations were detected - call it 60k households breaking rules.

That's still > 90% that kept in the rules.

Almost 10% of population screwing up is bad... but 90% keeping in the rules is amazeballs.

@Christmasstartedalready
A lot of the reasons that are trotted out are selfish. Single people and single parents have been able to bubble to get support. Even the idea of this has been co opted by so many people not in these circumstances to cover anything they fancy doing.
There is truth in that we all ultimately protect those closest to us but it shouldn’t exclude a sense of social responsibility. I have had some quite stern words with my older teen about his responsibilities towards his teachers and their own families. He understands this and is acting accordingly. In a wider sense we all have responsibilities towards the NHS staff who will put themselves at risk to help us.

I’m sorry for your loss @DownstairsMixUp. I do believe many of us have compassion for those surviving battles just now further compounded by Covid.

Those people were wrong to effectively ask you to suppress your grief and emotions because others have it worse.

I don't agree in terms of many = majority. Most people I know are being sensible. I do know one hairdresser who worked throughout both lockdowns and someone who was travelling to visits friends and places when they shouldn't have been but they are in the minority.

The trouble is OP we live in a society where self entitlement is rife.

These people DO NOT care about you or others.

These people only care about themselves and there immediate bubbles. They are so stupidly blind to realise that the bigger picture or greater good will enrich their lives if they contributed.

They can not see beyond their own immediate instant gratification.

They are cunts but then again they always have been cunts, we just never had to deal with them before because precovid we could avoid them easily and their actions rarely impacted our way of life.

As this goes on though we will be divided further because we have several more years of this yet to endure.

Don't worry OP I'm in essex so apparently by Sin's standards I am already part of the problem so I will join your posse. I mean except that like many others in essex I've barely been out for months , we went out to take the DC to and from school and that's it. No parties , no visiting no anything (in all fairness we are naturally anti social but that's besides the point )

I do agree actually last night they actually had to issue a dispersal order covering an entire part of the town to deal with people. I was genuinely surprised to hear this morning how many parties had been a problem. I honestly thought people would be sensible with freedom (relative) on the horizon.

I completely understood the fireworks increase in private homes ,I totally understood the need for relief that the end of the year was here. I am totally nonplussed at people gathering in the eye of the storm.

@Fortheweekend

Most of the people I know who have contracted the virus in recent weeks have caught it off their children and most of them are in the 16-25 age group. I’m not saying they are the main instigators but I would bet my bottom dollar that the majority of these New Years Eve party goers have been full of people in that age group.

Why on any other thread if the elderly etc. are mentioned there are cries of ageism straight away. But blame the young ones and no one cares? At the heart of it, humans are selfish and will ultimately look after themselves and their own. It's sad but true!

Yes, many people lack both intelligence and imagination/empathy.

Also many people do not feel that others beyond their immediate family are their concern or responsibility. While I agree that in current circs it’s only natural and sane to prioritise protecting ourselves and immediate loved ones, there are lots of people who, for example, refuse to believe that a higher-rate taxpayer would vote Labour (I am not saying Labour = good, it’s an example of a mindset) in the hope of improving society as a whole rather than narrowly focusing on the effects on their own payslip. Again a lack of imagination but also a fundamentally different approach to life. I think such people tend to be quicker to attribute negative motivation to others and feel a stronger need to protect and assert themselves.

However I still believe that the vast majority of people are essentially kind and decent according to their own principles - and of course all of us can behave well or badly.

I've seen 10+ vulnerable lives taken by covid. I still remember one of the deaths pretty painfully and I've seen what covid does to people I'll with it. I'm not a nurse I'm a carer

Some people are unable to see the bigger picture, or understand that there was always going to be negative concequences from this virus, no matter how the situation was managed.
They see what they see now, the results of restrictions. I think it's good that we have people putting the negative side of the restrictions across, as well as the negative side of the virus, I think it helps balance the response and stop it going too far one way or the other.
I think some people are too wrapped up in fighting the government, or that their lives have been impacted, to understand they would have been impacted regardless of what measures were taken to control this situation. It's a no win situation.
Full and harsh lockdown may have controlled the virus better, but would have cost in other ways, no restrictions at all would have cost a lot from the virus (and not just in terms of death but reduced or lack of services due to no one being there to do them)
Other than putting the genie back in the bottle, no one was going to be unaffected by this.

@Phoenix21

It’s been like that for such a long time, I think we just notice it more now as it affects more of us.

Those on benefits, disabled, asylum seekers etc were vilified for years. Other groups were tolerated or viewed with suspicion.

We now hear ‘just lock up the vulnerable’. Everyone e at each other’s throats, those on furlough, the 3m self employed.

We are not a very compassionate country.

And while we battle each other the wealthy profit from public money for PPE, T&T, cleaning hospitals, building schools etc.

Exactly this! It didn’t take a pandemic to make people selfish, they already were it’s just now their selfish actions affect more people we personally know.