Post Covid Rage

I've seen it and also have done it myself (NYC here). To be clear we are still not in a post COVID environment but still in the midst of it. This rage will just get worse. There is a very bad "vibe" in the air here. It's almost palpable.

So many more car accidents here the last 6 months. I know we were driving less during quarantine but it seems like people are now more selfish.

Post Covid? Donald Trump gave permission to the poor downtrodden patriotic folks who felt they had lost their rights to be sexist, homophobic, racist, etc, when he opened the floodgates about 6 years ago, making every despicable act socially acceptable. The rage has been there for a long time.

Yes. This combined with a heat wave in my area this weekend led to all kinds of craziness on the sidewalk in the middle of the day. And the people I work with are keeping weird hours, emailing in the middle of the night, and seem more emotionally unstable. People are not ok.

R1 here. If we have another disaster here in NYC such as a blackout or terrorist attack, this city will explode no question about it. The genie is of of the bottle.

I observed a man sitting in his convertible swearing at the top of his lungs about some BITCH who was bothering him. It was at the gas station and he was making quite a scene, and it made me feel uneasy. People have lost their filter and sanity increasingly, and I think a lot of it is due to stress. Then again many never had any manners to begin with.

People are also drinking more and drinking during the day.

Yes Op. people are all on edge. One step away from exploding. I think it’s social media which makes everything worse and saturates them in adrenaline and anxiety.

Yeah, social media is a problem. I have "friends" on Facebook that post the most ridiculous right wing shit, and I quickly compose a reply that logically refutes their argument with facts, but I end up not posting it because I don't want to set someone off. For example, do people really think that "mean Tweets" are why we voted against Trump? That was our only complaint?

Covid is still here. You're talking about post-Trump loss rage. They can't believe all their beautiful dreams of a white, heterosexual, Christian nation fell into the abyss. With each day it fades further.

Crazy weather isn't helping either. We had the fire in Laguna Niguel, and then a church shooting in Laguna Woods. People are on edge here too- when I go out (outside dining only), people are drinking like fish and borderline manic.

No, no—I was trying to put the blame on the vaccine…!

So I’m guessing I’ve had Covid since the early 70s then?

Nope, everything is fine where I live.

You’re just noticing this OP? In my neighborhood if you look at someone on the street for a beat too long, they growl like they want to fight you. Also, when people aren’t being hostile, they’re being incompetent.

I agree with so many of the posts here. I think it's rage from COVID, from the pressures that existed before COVID and during the pandemic, and how the world is pushing us to go back to normal although the pandemic is still going on. There's too much uncertainty and people are on edge. I feel it all around me. Every time I go out, I am cautious because people just erupt and act out. And I also feel on edge. I do agree that the Trump era gave people the idea to be bold and unmask their hatred. I also think social media plays a role, too.

There's so much rage that I just want to go live in the country. I used to love living in the city.

Americans have been like this for a long time. Rage filled, entitled and filter free. Though I do believe the ubiquity of camera phones has actually made me people 10x more hostile, paranoid, vindictive and aggressive. Some would think that the possibility of being filmed whenever you're in public would temper bad behavior but it's seemingly made it worse. I think some of it is due to the fact that minor unpleasant or embarrassing interactions can now blow up and go viral rather than simply blow over. It leaves people on edge.

Edit : People not me people

Some of us are also living in post de Blasio New York and he has so much to be held accountable for.

This past week he gave a press conference to announce he's running for Congress. As he left the podium, someone shouted at him "First you ruined the city, now you want to ruin the country!"

I was reading an article that said gas might be $10 a gallon by summer. I'd link if I could remember where.

There will be riots in the streets.

This started with Trump, OP. Long before Covid. Let's not rewrite history.

I live in West Hollywood. This happened last night, right down the street.

Is this one of those topic changer threads the right wingers like to pop up in? How soon until we blame Trans, or did I miss that already?

Things always simmered under the surface, but Trump emboldened people to be crude, racist pigs.

I’m in Canada so maybe it’s a bit different. I did notice people inspired by Trump became more bold but the really bad behaviour has only been the past year or two.

It’s not just Covid- people can’t afford to buy food, gas or pay their rent. Their 401(k)s are plummeting (those that have them.) There’s nothing but bad news and after 2+ years of Covid anxiety/insanity people are frayed.

I was at the grocery store the other day and there was a shouting match between a guy in the checkout line and the store manager. “Get out of my store” and f bombs being thrown. Police were called. Both were yelling at the top of their lungs. I stood there wondering what I would do if the guy pulled out a gun and started shooting. People are FRAYED.

I left the US a bit over a year ago, and I haven’t encountered anything close to US levels of rage, aggression, or entitlement even though every country had to deal with Covid. Trumpists and all the Q loons have been working themselves up into a rabid froth for the past several years…and they are armed, dangerous and stupid. It’s hard to see how things will get better when you add in a recession and ever more guns in the hands of every unstable lunatic in the country.

I don't know why you're tying it to Covid, OP. Inflation is high, housing costs are outrageous, and maybe you're more cranky so you notice other people being short-tempered.

Yes. I had to stop myself several times from going off on people. I don’t if I am just angrier or if everyone else has become totally inept at their jobs

Good insight R27. I do think the Trump open hostility and the festering civil war of hatred he unleashed is unique to the US. I’m not going anywhere - I still prefer to live here than anywhere else - but things are off the rails. I am spending less time in the city now - not loving being around people and people are going crazy. Back to the sheltered country life as much as possible.

Ive seen several screaming matches out in public and I make it a point to get the fuck away before bullets start flying. People are definitely unstable now. I had a guy aggresively tailgate me on the expressway the other day for no discernible reason as I was a good 10 miles over the speed limit. Yet he followed me for quite a while,pulling up as close as he could doing 75. I wont lie,I was nervous as hell. Got off the nearest exit,thankfully he didnt follow me. I stay home a whole hell of a lot more than I ever did before.

Social media, late stage capitalism living, more for me, none for thee govt, the media and oligarchs exploiting the rage for gain by stirring it further, people being stupified by kardashian culture and the youngins are really pissing off people who lived before social media meaning the latter are worlds more intelligent while having to share space and air with a lot who are not. I think that last one plays a huge part. The internet took away courtesy for thy neighbor and bred a grotesque cult of individuality. Lotta dumb dumbs out here making it hard. Topped off with nobody, seemingly, nobody catching a break. Nobody. Petty injustices are corrosive when compounded.

Oh, and the unrelenting violence. And the fact there are no laws in place to protect civilians from corporate theft and greed. We have been living this way for years. I Can go on if you’d like.

Then Trump.

Then a plague.

This is really only a fraction of the stew.

I honestly don’t know if I can take any more stress. Everything is just awful 24/7. Even at work it feels like there is a push to keep everyone and everything full throttle so no one has a chance to ask any questions. There’s no sense of let’s take the foot off the brake for a minute. Things are so far from “normal” or what they were before COVID. It’s just too much.

R33 R32 here. I’m with you. Skull-crushing, unrelenting stress. Financial, relationship, work. Im buckling under a solid 3 years of it. I truly think I am in the midst of somewhat of a breakdown.

Agree with all of the above.

It started with Trump, though. His relentless crapping over basic decency was emotional rape every day for four years.

The day he dies I'll have a party in my back yard. I truly loathe him.

Same, r32/r34. I'm forty five years old and I never in my entire life thought I'd go through & see what I experienced in the last few years. It is just bonkers. Everything is in hyperdrive.

Example: used to be that weather patterns & storms were more predictable, like "it's hurricane season" & there might be one major hurricane every couple years. Now it's random, unpredictable weather, happening outside the usual season, sometimes in places that are not used to them (Texas deep freeze, recent tornado in Michigan). We are getting less and less warning. Extreme temperature fluctuations are causing problems with people's bodies & heads. I have fucked up sinus & ear issues from the polar vortex in 2019.

I've become an absolute nihilist.

Like others, I came here to say that driving has gotten really bad since the lockdowns ended. In the last month there have been several fatalities in town and just outside of town on the highways.

That is terrible r22. So ugly.

What bothers me the most is the normalization of such an erratic reality that never stops. Being told ridiculous platitudes about being flexible and dealing w change make it even harder, as if anyone struggling is just being a big baby.

Never wait for companies to give you the thumbs up to dip out in times of extreme weather. If you feel you are in immediate danger, leave and explain later. I’ve had a couple of incidents recently where it was clear my safety wasn’t a priority.

I think it is all due to economic disparity. The lords just openly flaunt their wealth and privilege in front of a serf class that is finally waking up to realize they are the fucking serf class. If we can get some charismatic leader to ignite a revolt against the rich, we'll be able to get past this, one way or another. Until then, it will just stew and grow with occasional boil overs like we are seeing now. This only ends in revolution.

Charismatic leader, you said?

are the majority of people who are killing, shooting, stabbing, slicing, pushing, burning . . .attacking workers at stores, looting, committing smash and grabs, drive-by shootings . . . white?

People have no patience if there is a line up for something. Even if it’s not a long one.

Also NO ONE will let you in if you signal to change lanes anymore. In fact people see the signal and just speed up so you can’t move over. Even if cars are approaching a red light or other slow down.

R10 you realize lots of people posting here are are not American don’t you? We don’t give a rats ass about Trump where I’m from, so while it MAY be a causal factor (1.5 or so years after the election), there is something else going on with society in general when others notice it in different countries.

R10 see R43

As people age, they shit-up their lives with divorces, arrests, evictions, firings, etc., etc. It's funny when you're young, then it all comes back to haunt you.

I suspect their lives are catching-up with them.

Many good points here.

[quote] Even at work it feels like there is a push to keep everyone and everything full throttle so no one has a chance to ask any questions. There’s no sense of let’s take the foot off the brake for a minute.

This definitely registers. My workplace has always had a "detachment" to it but now it's just straight-up coldness. I feel the pressure is on us to make as much revenue as possible - safety and mental health be damned - to recoup the losses from the past two years. I think that's likely the case for other workplaces. The pressure and stress are too much. I see so many people breaking down, calling in sick not just one or two days, but multiple weeks, or being off for months at a time. Other staff members get stuck with the absent employee's work in addition to their own and then they go into stress mode.

I shudder to think what things will be like by the end of the year or same time next year.

I manage a mid price hair salon that encourages walk in service, but the salon has been hitting capacity every weekend and on Saturdays from 9am to 1pm is like working in the inner circle of Hell. Tech people also don’t want face to face and will avoid it, rushing to check in on the IPad, or insist I am wrong and the computer is right- “But it says you have an opening in 4 minutes!” Four people will show up for the same 11:30 appt and NOT ONE would back down. People pretend they made an appointment, but aren’t in the system, then blame us for it- up until I ask to see the text confirmation. When I tell them we can’t take them because they’re late, they push back. I have one cunt who’s ALWAYS 20 minutes late and said, “I’m on my way” even though she only had 10 minutes left. I can’t cut your hair in ten minutes, hun. Who would even want a 10 minute cut? I had a family of 6 fatties walk in at 11am, plop down, and just assume they’d be taken care of- despite me telling them there’s plenty of appts at 4pm, “Oh no, that doesn’t work for us”. I was a cunt right back, “If you had called at 9am I would’ve been able to accomodate you better”.

A lot of this is redressing the uncomfortable and developing what I call a “graceful no”.

Sorry to hear that r49. I hope things calm down for your salon. Glad you are not taking their nonsense and staying firm. And your post just raised another thing for me, everything seems to be so much busier nowadays. Maybe it's me getting used to things going back to quasi-normal but it just seems everywhere is packed with people. People seem to be making up for lost time.

Okay. I'm one of these people who (not so secretly) loved the shut-downs. I felt the rage building when Trump "won" the election. I live in a mostly liberal area in LA and people were so angry, as opposed to the small groups of (Trumper) idiots here and there who felt entitled to be loud and nasty. Like living in a continuous storm. But when Covid hit....man, I took long walks at night with my dog. The streets were empty, silent, it was beautiful. No traffic. I only drove 1 day a week to get everything done, but with no traffic it was so easy. I went from 1mg of Klonopin every day for years to 1/2mg maybe 5 times a week.

Almost back up to the full milligram now! I'm gonna see if I can switch to xanax.

I loved the lockdown r51 and I have no shame in admitting it. So much peace.

The dark side of social media made Trump, and Trump made social media even darker.

Intolerance metastasized.

Irritations are suddenly deadly

We lived through --and are living through-- a global pandemic where we saw certain government officials, church leaders, and people close to us show that despite what they claim, that they just do not give a fuck about other people. They care more for being inconvenienced or losing a buck. Millions of people died. Our healthcare works dealt with those dying and dead people, for days and months, while half the population refused to mitagate and some even threatened their lives. Other people are also having their lives threatened for doing their jobs --their families are being threatened as well-- just because a group of choads didn't get what they wanted. Every day, more illegalities and treason are uncovered and out in the open in the American government yet nothing is done to any of them. Almost half of the American population live in a delusional bubble of some sort, either because they are watching only carefully curated "news" that tells them certain parts of a story or neglects to tell the story at all or they have created their own alt-reality, with neither group being able to handle reality (that Trump lost, there is no vast conspiracy against you, not everyone is going to call you by the name you chose, etc). COVID isn't going away and many people don't want to, or are unable to because of their health, do what it takes to to avoid it anymore. Inflation is bad, globally. No one offers anyone else any grace or kindness anymore. Frankly, I see the opposite where more people get off on the suffering of others.

I have no idea what could improve things on a wider scale. I can only control myself! I try to avoid those who have become more cruel or heartless because of Trump, COVID or other. I give my effort towards others and working towards improving what I can.

So many drama queens on this thread.

[R51] & [R52] Me too. I can't get used to "normal" again, especially since normal is now permeated with free-floating rage everywhere. The tension is unrelenting. Have been trying to move to the country for nine months but the real estate market reflects the general insanity of the times and is yet another source of stress. People fighting tooth and nail, making completely irrational offers on basic-ass or sub-par houses. Not willing to play those games.

Eat shit, [R55].

Yes. I think people are getting worse. More selfish, rude, entitled, quick to attack, quick to anger, less able to shrug things off or walk away.

I have noticed this even in Canada, R25 - I thought the Canadians would be immune but I feel like it's infecting there too :-(

Weird

We all have PTSD. Don’t discount just how bad the last three years have been.

“Post” Covid, OP? We’re not “post” anything.

I think if the crazy train would stop for a while it would help. But there’s been absolutely zero latitude for humanity “post COVID”—just a deepening intensity that is relentless.

[quote]There's so much rage that I just want to go live in the country. I used to love living in the city.

Well, I don't know about coming to the country, because I live in the country & there are Trump signs, "Let's Go Brandon" and "FU Biden" signs with shocking frequency. A lot of good points on this thread, but I'd also add the war in the Ukraine & the clear indication that Putin wants a wider war and the fear of how far he'll go. Add to that all the other pressures that people have mentioned, particularly gas prices and it just drives people berserk. I used to work around some Trumpers/anti-vaxxers and those people are just in a rage every day over every thing. For the ones who capitulated to vaccinations, now they're claiming they have all these side effects.

As someone else wisely noted, the only think you can control is your own behavior & your own reaction, but I do find myself worrying more than I used to about active shooters in public places like grocery stores.

Re R60, we are also not post-Trump. He's still there and he still wants to make as much trouble as he possibly can. He's a psychopath and his followers are aggressive, empty-headed idiots. This tension in the air isn't going to dissipate in the US until that guy is soundly rejected in a 2nd election, or he dies. It's just that simple. Getting him out of the way might not solve the problem that he represents, but it is definitely not going to let up so long as he is on the scene.

Not saying this is the main contributor: but , I think we don’t give enough credit to one other thing….

Russia and China literally have any farms upon any farms of people employed to stir shit up on western social media. The goal of which is to weaken western society. They pose as regular American (or name your western country) commenters like you and me who are from One side or another of a debate and cause hell. They create threads on left leaning sites posing as right wingers (hmmm) to stir up more hate and resentment. And vice versa on the right. And they get paid by the post and by the number or reactions/replies. Do I think the other responses are main reasons why we are having trouble? Of course. But don’t underestimate what I am talking about either and do t ever be sure the people on the other side of a computer screen are who we think they are. I assume I will get clobbered for this post and that’s okay. Just remember those governments would not put such things into place if they didn’t have the means and belief it would help their goals.

^I agree; though the best scenario is "he dies"; others will try to claim the MAGA crown, but that's bound to break up the movement and the Trump kids will try to be king makers, but will fail miserably. The only plus side of Trump's continual life is that as long as he's around, even if he's mortally wounded, he'll continue to undermine anyone (like DeSantis) who tries to take the MAGA crown.

Wasn’t there a stat that 38% of Twitter are bots recently?

I meant ant* farms not any* (typo)

Kamala’s laugh did it for me. Lost all control.

R57, it is happening here too, fortunately we don't have access to guns in the same way (although Toronto is going through a spate of car jackings with illegal guns involved. No deaths - yet.)

I dare to say this about the American context but I don't think the rage started building anywhere post Trump - Trump reflected the rage that had built, although it has gotten crazy worse ever since because Republicans embraced every failing you can apply to a person. Nothing is now beyond or beneath them. And the Democrats have been away with the fairies, failing to talk to everybody. Granted the Republicans have it much easier since their only job is to stoke the anger. But can anybody really argue people think the Democrats are on their side? From outside, I wouldn't say so. Everybody's afraid to say the truth: the system is broken, the American dream is fiction.

It's not that much better here. We are lucky 2/3 of the country tends to vote centre left at the national level and that Conservatives governing provincially tend to be moderate (except in Ontario, where they are angry simpletons and Alberta, where they just drink blood.) But we also had the trucker protests - there's an undercurrent here, too, and you worry whatever civility we have is more fragile than we know. I blame the left here as much as right. We're having an election right now. Our lefty representative hasn't bothered to send a team down my street or drop off a single piece of literature. We're single family homes in a reasonably prosperous neighbourhood. There's not enough votes in play to bother and the are typically votes Liberal, not NDP. But what does that say to us about this woman and the political process?

Someone upthread said they'd become a nihilist. I'm not a fatalist, of the belief human society is hurtling toward its own destruction. I am reasonably confident it won't happen before I die in some usual way, so am grateful for that. But, yes, we're all enraged. Monkey pox - fucking thanks. One more. The old life isn't coming back. The politicians have abandoned any sense of duty. I'd like to punch something. I used to come to DL for the conversation, now I come to vent my spleen. (I'd get a blog but who blogs anymore?)

^ To the degree it matters, I meant to type I'm not that (a nihilist) but a fatalist...

I’m so done with being scared and unhappy.

R71 I feel the very same way. I’ve been through too much. You only get one life and it’s all over so soon.

I agree, the problem is, there's real risk attached to getting on with it. COVID is milder, luckily, but now the monkey pox... it like... fuck.

I hear you, r71

[Quote]I was reading an article that said gas might be $10 a gallon by summer. I'd link if I could remember where.

Lol, you fell for it! This is from the article in the NY Post which LOVES to plant little seeds just like this:

[Quote]The displays were limited to single digits as recently as March, but the surging price of gas has led to the change. A 76 spokesperson told the Post Millennial that the change did not necessarily mean the company was predicting gas prices would reach $10 a gallon.

Wow, I see their nefarious plan worked out perfectly. You were baited and hooked, r20. Please stop spreading this incorrect rumor.

r55 = Trump

R64 and 67? I believe they're called Troll Farms.

You are absolutely correct. I, myself, keep forgetting when sprung into a rage from a comment I've read on line. Keep repeating it. We need to be reminded daily.

I would caution against waiting for the Trump era to end, because the far right media machine has been going steadily since the 1990s and it never really ends, it just mutates. The Rush Limbaugh Dittoheads turned into the Tea Party, who in turn became the Trump supporters and Q-Anon people.

It's difficult for Democratic politicians to fight against these kinds of movements because the members of these groups always threaten violence, and the Republican politicians themselves will go scorched earth any time they are thwarted. Proscute Donald Trump and you will guarantee that the Republicans will spend years or decades trying to throw the next Democratic president into jail.

To those saying they loved the lockdowns and found them peaceful, I think and am worried I have become a complete agoraphobe. I was injured during the lockdowns and did not have any sort of work really so my routine and structure suffered. I used to love driving to the market, shopping for fresh flowers and coffee, small things that make life better. Now I can’t bring myself to go into a store. I can only tolerate high-end markets because box stores are so depressing and spark major anxiety with the amount of people and aggressive energy in them-same for the roads. Driving is a nightmare! And lets just say I can’t afford a high-end market for everything so I have resulted to delivery, which is also pricier and feeds my agoraphobia. Its bad and I am starting to worry. Never did I think I would be the person I am right now. Its just too intense out there.

Yup, the fish rots from the head down, r21.

It's ALL TRUMP. The man is a cancer on this country. He fixed us good.

R21 and continues with the clueless, inept current administration that is not the light at the end of the tunnel and almost all polls show this and it's not just Repugs who are dissatisfied

My husband works in a dermatologist’s office and patients have been HIDEOUS for the last year. A lot of them just lie to his face, usually about appointment times and procedure fees: “but the doctor said this costs $XX!!”

I see petty fights in Rite Aid, etc. all the time. A woman went nuts on me last week because I “had a look on my face.” She called me a “punk” and then freaked out and began yelling “My HUSBAND died this week! It was on the NEWS! He was on a MOPED on FOURTH Avenue and a truck hit him!”

She was not mentally ill, just enraged. You almost have to laugh…except, of course, she could have shot me. (Incidentally, I did some research and she was telling the truth about her husband. She’s still a nasty snatch, however.)

Then—back to my husband—he brought home 20 Irises for me on Sunday. He told me he heard a little kid on the street—maybe 10?—say to his mother “look at the fag with the flowers.” He was going to say something to the mother but he said the mother looked mortified and whispered something to the kid. I would have said something disturbing to them—as I have done to children before—but that’s why I’m the one who will get shot by a stranger.

It just seems like many people are acting like early 1970s junkies without the benefit of being high.

I flew into a rage at about 10:40am this morning. I turned on The View and there was that fucking Cunt KellyAnne Conway promoting her book. Financially benefitting from 4 years of Treason. Why was she even allowed on? All those hosts have (thankfully) trashed her mercilessly these past four years. It really made me feel ill. If I had been in that room, I might have grabbed Smelly-Anne by her hair, thrown her on the ground and stomped her fucking head with my foot! I fucking hate hate hate her! (how's that for rage?)

I don't think I've ever seen it this bad.

What part of the Bronx do you live in R83?

Wouldn’t you be angry and scared? We are still in a horrible pandemic, inflation, recession. There’s war death, mass shootings and climate change. It’s awful to be alive.

Take time to make space for yourself and your loved ones. Practice mindfulness and slow down a bit.

Everything in America is on steroids, the good and the bad.

That said: I personally feel like I‘ve been sitting in a waiting room since early 2020, waiting for life to start back up again.

[quote] Everything in America is on steroids, the good and the bad.

So true. A country of extremes.

[quote] That said: I personally feel like I‘ve been sitting in a waiting room since early 2020, waiting for life to start back up again.

Same here.

Are you in the US, Dutchie? Or Netherlands?

[quote] Wouldn’t you be angry and scared? We are still in a horrible pandemic, inflation, recession. There’s war death, mass shootings and climate change. It’s awful to be alive.

And so many people are having kids. I don't get it. I wouldn't want to bring a child into the world at this point.

The world is a very sad and unstable place right now

R89 I live in the south of Germany.

Another thing not to underestimate: It has become so blatantly obvious that most of us under-45 crowd (1987 here) may never have the opportunity to own a proper house.

Which leads this and especially the next generation (Z) scratching their heads “Why work that hard if it doesn’t get you further in life?”

[R83] Your husband sounds like a sweetheart. Irises are beautiful!

Houses are overrated R93. Just be glad you are not in on that game of musical chairs.

R93

My father came of age after WW2 and he said that people rarely owned houses then. So it's not always been a given that you own a house.

He said people just expected to pay a certain part of their income for housing expenses.

R96, that's also when rent was cheaper than a monthly mortgage payment and houses were cheap enough to purchase outright after saving up for a decade or so. Rents are fucking ridiculous now.

People are more openly disagreeable and prone to anger over the most minor inconveniences now. I've never experienced as many grown adults willing to yell and threaten others in my city as I have the past two years. God forbid you go in the same aisle they want to go in at the grocery store-- you will catch hell.

r98 I can deal with catching hell…but I don’t want to be stabbed.

R93 and r96 etc I’m a bit over 45 and make a really good income but I waited too long to buy and now I will never get in the market. I live in Toronto where there is also a lot of foreign buying and the market just never cooled off when they said it would years back. The weird thing is that unless they are lying, I see so many people at work buying who are way younger than me and single and I don’t understand it. Inheritances? Parents giving them seed money? Everyone sits around at work in the lunch room bragging back and forth and comparing maintenance fees and mortgage rates. It’s so uncomfortable. These people also make a fair bit less than I do, I know. Maybe they are moving into 300sq feet next to an expressway and not telling anyone that part. I don’t know. It makes me feel like I failed somehow. Renting has been like a shameful thing to admit around these parts for a long time.

Bank of mom and dad, R00. Out of curiosity, what's a really good income?

We've always been a smoldering coal seam of insane rage hidden under a veneered, too white smile, ready to pop off and lose control at any perceived slight.

R98, we have people flat-out bragging about being horrible human beings. On t-shirts, on bumper stickers, in Facebook bios, getting up in your face, trying to 'go viral'. It's always a new 'rant' or story about going off on someone so their followers can give them 👍, 💪, 🙌, or👏. Life should be a contest as to who can be the biggest asshole but it sure seems like a lot of people signed up to be contestants and want to place!

*shouldn't be a contest

I think millenials are over it and that contributes to it.

Do we really count as being post-covid?

I am in Washington DC which is not Trump land by any stretch of the imagination. And residents here have gone nuts. People are fighting on public transportation regularly. I was at Target last week and several staff members and several customers were in a shouting match. A bunch of kids ran through a Chipotle and threw chairs on the ground while stealing people's handbags. Race relations in the district are at an all-time low. The mayor is an idiot but that doesn't explain everything.

R107, you don't have to be a Trumper to have been driven insane by him and his minions and the country they exposed. Trump made people hopeless. Take away people's hope, and anything goes because why the fuck not if nothing is ever going to get better. Plus, he showed that you can do pretty much anything and act in any kind of despicabe manner and it doesn't matter at all.

R106 No.

"The United States is recording more than 100,000 infections a day — at least five times higher than this point last year — as it confronts the most transmissible versions of the virus yet. Immunity built up as a result of the record winter outbreak appears to provide little protection against the latest variants, new research shows. And public health authorities are bracing for Memorial Day gatherings to fuel another bump in cases, potentially seeding a summer surge."

[quote]I think millenials are over it and that contributes to it.

Actually, we've been over it since our angsty, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Good Charlotte, My Chemical Romance, P.O.D fangirl/boy teen years.

Well, the country is over Millennials, so...

[quote]And so many people are having kids. I don't get it. I wouldn't want to bring a child into the world at this point.

People value fucking over good sense.

No reasonable decision has ever been made by a horny human being.

[quote] Has anyone noticed a lot of seemingly ordinary people filled with rage post covid?

Yes.

[quote]No reasonable decision has ever been made by a horny human being.

Part of it is, shame is nearly dead. Nobody gives a fuck what anybody else thinks. Selfishness is our reflex. We don't even know it. If your first and only thought is yourself... here we are.

It's the phones!

Such a Toronto question to ask someone at r101. Out of curiosity of course.

It’s 5G

Marshall Law is coming!

Oh, Dongo, don't be so bitchy. I'm being blatantly nosy. I know what I made there when I worked and I wanted to compare dicks.

Exactly r120. You wanted to compare dicks. Very Toronto. You’re being bitchy at me calling it for what it is lol

Not so much the call as the tone. Which is quite Toronto in itself, R121. You'd fit right in. If it was the kind of place you'd want to fit in.

I do think, though, when you hint you make enough you should be able to carry a mortgage that it's fair to ask what you think is enough. But that's just me. Responding. In a thread.

I'd swallow his load

No, not at all, if anything, I see more evidence to the contrary. But I am in Spain where rates of full vaccination are 90% and compliance was achieved with no arm pulling (as was mask wearing, now discontinued except in transportation and health facilities.)

Presumably it stems from compliance not having been a divisive issue and with it a collective sense of relief to have returned to a more relaxed and normal state. There's no extra crazy in evidence, no frayed nerves on display.

All these Toronto people…

R122 nah. You’re just being a typical Toronto twit that wants to measure your dick against someone else by asking income. Note that at no point did I ask you or anyone me else’s advice ask for you or anyone else’s advice about what is needed to “carry a mortgage”. . If I needed your advice about carrying a mortgage on the type of property I want to own, I would have asked that question or started my own thread about it. And you continue to drag it out because I’m not telling you and you feel butt hurt.

[quote]Presumably it stems from compliance not having been a divisive issue

You can thank the Spanish Inquisition for that.

There's been a culture of blind compliance in that country ever since.

I hope covid infection makes you a million times more likely to get monkeypox. Dumb fuckers.

R128, falling off the wagon again after her third round of Anger Management sessions.

Twit? Wow, you know how to cut.

r108 you are describing how the other side has described us for two decades.

I’ll post road rage instead

Honk! Honk! Move over bitch! I gotta take a shit!

Fuck you, Mister!

Half the time, I feel like I’m an unwilling actor in somebody else’s pre-planned performance.

People have circled their wagons for the plague. They’re treating everyone outside that circle of friends/family like dogs.

R97 it was before Section 8 existed so there weren't dozens of welfare kids 5 to an apartment playing in the hallway, making noise and in general turning a property into a shithole and the landlord into a slumlord

My therapist said this is a total thing. She actually mentioned many of the things noted on here - surplus of traffic accidents, career changes, questioning life, etc. We are in a weird phase because the pandemic is still technically happening, the future is unclear and there is a lot of chaos in the world. She told me I needed to start meditating and learning to accept uncertainty. Easier said than done.

I find my therapist giving me the same advice, all easier said than done. I guess they’re struggling like we are too. It’s a weird time to be alive.

Yeah, no more breathing and meditation apps. Fuck that. The best solutions are acceptance and resignation. It’s not being hopeless or believing things will never be good, but letting go of how things were, or your expectation of how things should be. Find a new “normal” you can live with. I find it particularly challenging because I’m not sure how much “smaller” I can make my life.

I think so much social unrest developed in the US at the same time as COVID with the George Floyd murder. I hoped to see race relations get better with BLM etc but somehow it just was more rage on all sides.

Social media is also a place where people vent after a bad day and attack others and say throngs they can’t say to their asshole boss or crappy spouse or disappointing child. Easier to eviscerated a stranger online.

Things* Eviscerate *

I notice more people openly drinking on subways and on the street. Not sure if there is a correlation to what is being discussed in this thread but cannot help but think there is a connection.

I believe a lot of drinking problems got worse over COVID. I know a few people at work who have crossed the line into alcoholism. They are still functional but not fun to deal with the morning after a drinking binge.

A positive outlook in the early days of COVID was that when we got out of it, it would be like the roaring 20’s all over again. Thanks to Putin’s war that’s not going to happen. Just as things felt like they were waning with a milder variant killing off delta, here comes the threat of nuclear war. It’s just all so exhausting.

^Yes and the collective depression and hopelessness don’t help. Despair turns into aggression.

I’m just burned out on many levels.

Drivers are even more aggressive now, and they honk more.

Fuck everybody!!!!!!!!!!!

BLM didn’t have any real leader emerge, so all the energy went from let’s talk and listen each other, to plain old simmering rage and blame. Then all companies started reshooting all their tv commercials with black actors like that means something - but it just looked like disingenuous capitalizing on a social issue. It was a missed opportunity in 2020 / 2021 during COVID. Then the election/Jan 6 stuff, then people getting sick of staying home. It makes me a little sad that society here had the chance to band together but instead became more divided and angry. But maybe it was to be expected. The roaring 20’s and the post ww2 era were moments of happiness in society after calamity. Not this time.

That's because we're not past the calamity yet, r147. The calamity is ongoing.

Post covid calamity r148. What the threat is about.

I don't think it's covid. And to blame Trump is too reductive, since this shit is worldwide. Everyone here in Australia gets more insane and aggresive each year. I never look people in the eye in public and always am on alert for some aggresive asshole ready to raise hell. Social media, economic stresses, screen-addicted disappointments of children, job instability, alcohol and drug abuse, sedentary digital lifestyles and of course boomers, the eternal pest getting more demented and entitled in public as the days go by.

R150 how long ago did you start noticing in Australia? I’m in Canada so we get a lot of their social issues imported to us, unfortunately. And social media doesn’t notice borders. I thought things got alot worse starting in mid 2020.

It’s liberals. They are the most miserable people. And unfortunately they’ve taken over the Democratic Party.

I’m old enough to remember when Obama took office. Liberals were giving George W Bush the “Trump” treatment. Remember Rosie O’Donnell saying Bush should be tried in The Hague? Liberals just need to hate.

All the bad you’re seeing right now is down to liberals getting everything they want and still making normal people miserable.

Gay people are miserable because the Trans movement took over.

Women are miserable because they’ve believed that men are holding them back (not realizing that only a small percentage of men ever became truly successful and a large percentage of men were just status quo.) And they’re angry because diversity programs only get them status quo.

Blacks - see Women, plus they’re angry because Asians and Hispanics are getting a better deal because Asians and Hispanics worked their ass of rather than relying on the government.

Parents- angry because their children are not being taught properly in school. While Asian countries are beating the US in STEM subjects, American children are being taught about drag queens.

Young people - have played by what they thought the rules are (go to college) and finding out that the Baby Boom generation are selfish and don’t care anything about anyone else and won’t make way for a new generation.

The entire population- angry at rising gas prices, rising food prices, uncontrolled borders but refuse to acknowledge that they voted for an incompetent administration.

I think a lot of minor “personal crazy” was tolerable/manageable when mainstream society was somewhat predictable and normal. But things are so off the rails batshit now that people have lost their minds. The internet is the catalyst for a lot of it.

liberals/progressives get the hell they made for themselves.

R151 I think it's gotten especially acute in the past year in Australia but I think the downward slide started 2015ish.

Trump + COVID + racial unrest + Putin = PTSD

I'm seeing plenty of Post Covid Rage after Roe v. Wade!

Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a LONG, hot summer

R157 on social media? TV?

Bump

It doesn't appear to be mellowing.

r161 if only they were fuckable.. that's the real crisis here, they gained so much weight they've moved from obese to morbidly obese and now they can't even find it to get themselves off.

It was a long hot summer now turned into a numbingly depressing winter. Having the peace that came with the lockdown was a huge cocktease. I miss it and I don’t at the same time. Getting back to the grind has been rough.