Are people getting meaner?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Popular discourse is heavily emphasizing "boundaries"--which is fine for weak-willed people who may benefit from this kind of rhetoric, but what it does in practice is encourage mean people to be even more mean.

Boundaries are about the self: what you will and won’t tolerate/do. For some reason popular discourse has made it more about the “other” and in the meantime made those “enforcing boundaries” wholly intolerable.

[Anonymous]

I love DCUM because people feel comfortable being honest behind a cloak of pseudo anonymity. It is no coincidence that it is also very mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. People are getting meaner. It’s awful.

It really is....many people (not all) have lost empathy, compassion, and basic kindness.

Observe the current Administration, from Trump’s treatment of nearly anyone who is not him or maybe his children.

And, it’s central to the Doge efficiency effort. Per musk, “The fundamental weakness of western civilization is empathy.”

Make America meaner.

[Anonymous]

Trump will soon begin confiscating women’s credit cards in America. He already stated his intention in plan 2025

[Anonymous]

I was kind of b**chy at work today. Off boarding employees who are basically being forced out is draining. Plus the prospect of my job turning into something different than what I applied for and started. I have so little patience for anyone who isn't needing something urgent.
On top of that, I waver between hoping I actually get to keep my job vs. wishing I too could be let go.
We're all super stressed.

[Anonymous]

I drive like an old woman in general and was driving slowly through a parking lot. We see and stop for an elderly man on foot well in advance of the cross walk. The man looks at our car and shakes his head with disgust. Crosses and shakes with disgust some more. I role my window down and ask if everything is okay. He said “What’s not okay is you were not planning to stop!”

Wtf?! He yelled at us for…stopping? Because he assumed we didn’t want to? So weird.

I said, “I wish you well, sir.”

Grumpy old man, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Hurt people hurt people. And there’s a whole lot of hurt people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, but there is something weird in the air.

I volunteer with my church in a food pantry. We provide kind of a drive through food bag of groceries (staples) and families drive through. Sometimes we get lucky and get meat or seasonal fruits and veggies, but again, this is staples, canned food. Vegetables, beans, rice, cereal, powdered milk, etc.

I was telling my two neighbors (different houses in the cul-de-sac) about it when she asked me where I was heading with groceries leaving my house (I collect food and replenish the pantry with others). They were downright mean! Called people who seek charity leeches and lazy bums. They told me I was wasting my time trying to do this because "these illegals are getting kicked out and the rest of them are just trash anyway." I was shocked. I mean, we are, like, pretty well off. This is a neighborhood where homes run over 1.5 million in Fairfax.

Second story, I was at work, and we had a meeting with another colleague who said she was PIPing an employee who refused to fly internationally for a conference. Someone tried to explain why this person might be worried, and she blew it off and said she was being dramatic. I know this employee, worked with her, and she's wonderful! I log in today and see the employee is gone. I felt terrible.

Third story, my husband coaches a sports team and it's small kids. And two men got in a literal fist fight over soccer.

Is there something in the water? What is going on here?

people get mean when they lose the ability to support their families.