Asking this because I was ‘inspired’ by yesterday’s edition of Dutch hooligan fights, which has been incident number I don’t even know of this year.
Ever since covid happened, Dutch society has become more harsh against each other. I think hooliganism may be the most obvious example of this but society as a whole has changed for the worse. People seem to openly hate each other even more, with hooliganism, open LGBTQ+ hate, polarization and increasing right wing rhetoric.
Yesterday AZ Alkmaar fans attacked West Ham United fans outside and inside the stadium. This comes after a few days ago, FC Groningen - Ajax was suspended because of hooliganism, the week before that incidents happened as well and basically the past two years have been violent in Dutch football with incidents happening every week.
People going out and partying have seen an increase in violent incidents as well. Femicide is up. Racism and homophobia have increased.
The ‘end’ of covid was portrayed as one big party but the opposite seemed to have happened.
Does anyone notice this in their countries as well? Because over here in Belgium it’s much less for example.
covid was one of the things that sent my country’s economy spiralling into the mess we are in right now, with the ukraine war being the last nail in the coffin. this is not to absolve the shitty capitalist government of their hand in this mess, but the situation was certainly less precarious in the first quarter of 2020 and before that. things were almost starting to look up.
I think people are really on edge right now, just mean and irritable. Life feels like waiting for the next big disaster or announcement that we should all be afraid.
It do be like that. Speaking as a young person, I also feel like many people of my generation see no future for themselves. Housing prices are insane, climate is getting worse, inequality is increasing and we keep getting poorer. I often find myself thinking what I’m doing all this effort for. A small single family home can sometimes cost up to half a million euro and you can only realistically afford that if you are in a relationship and you both earn good money. Climate action is sometimes non-existent. Even talking about the first decent pay rise in ages is taboo.
If you feel like there’s nothing to work towards in life, no wonder some people fall off the wagon and into a lifestyle like I mentioned above. It may sound entitled, life is worse basically everywhere else outside of The Netherlands, but still. If you grow up with a certain expectation of society, in which you see your parents work and be able to afford a good house with good living standards, and you see that it will not be the case for you, you can get mad.
I’m not sure. I’ve barely gone outside since COVID started.
As a student (although I’m graduating on the 25th of this month. Going to College afterwards) I have observed that we are more reliant on our phones, likely due to the pandemic (although we no longer undergo online learning, at least where I’m in), and it seems like capitalist media is taking advantage of that in some way.
Class announcements (Including required activities) are now made almost exclusively on Facebook’s Messenger, which imo absolutely sucks when you’re trying to avoid mainstream social media. (Reason being, it was absolutely draining as fuck when we had to sit in front of a screen for more than 8 hours a day with an extra 4 hours spent on completing activities online, with some extra hours checking for announcements or attending group meetings that could reach well beyond 12AM, back when we were still quarantined. Not a fun experience, especially with particularly shitty internet. Would never do it again.)
As a side note, several of my classmates used ChatGPT to finish their assignments, though I don’t find this too surprising considering that it makes the process a lot faster. (I’d rather memorize notes, though I also sometimes memorize the lectures themselves if they’re especially short or easy to summarize, but maybe I’m just old-fashioned lol)
As for the worsening political environment, yeah. It’s also happening here in the Philippines. On top of the whole “Red-Tagging” stuff, the establishment of US military bases here via EDCA is being welcomed by Marcos Jr. and his supporters. (despite him still claiming the “enlightened centrist” stance here)
Almost everyone became complete psychos here in the last few years, I don’t remember being it like this, minus the classic open nazis, church etc and people who support that. Now we have hordes protesting who say that literal massacres and mass shootings are caused by TV shows and games ‘‘which need to be banned’’ while talking about nothing other than ‘‘falling population problem’’ because of’‘women killing millions of kids by abortion’'.
Everyone is out of their fucking minds!
Yes, as a teen who’s whole worldview has drastically changed in the last few years. In 2019 all I really knew about politics (beyond some environmental stuff) is “Trump is a bad dude who’s silly and is the president,” now I’m a full Marxist-Leninist with a decent understanding of geopolitical economy and history. Then, a was a just a kid who goes to church on Sunday, now I’m existentially confused with a long list of books to read. Naturally, I have a very different view of society, but my past view just seems incomplete and niave, so I can’t compare well. Similar to what others have said, screens have become more dominant, violence has become more normalized, and climate change is more urgent and here, but it seems like less are talking about it. I think I heard someone say the pandemic made trends for people accelerate very fast, and I think that’s accurate.
