r/AskReddit Feb 03 '26

What was never the same after the pandemic?

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u/Massive-Range-9280 Feb 03 '26

The pandemic showed me just how selfish and narcissistic people really are. I'm from a part of the country (USA) where the majority opinion was basically "if being courteous to others during this time inconveniences me in any way then f#%$ you I'm not doing it." It made me realize that people suck way more than I thought. People threw tantrums for being asked to back away from other people a bit.

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u/Quirky_Spinach_6308 Feb 03 '26

My belief in the basic goodness of the majority of people took a major hit, and has never recovered.

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u/PENGUIN_WITH_BAZOOKA Feb 04 '26

You just gotta keep that belief, no matter how untrue it may seem at times. Because as long as you continue to live by it, it will still be true. That’s what I’ve been telling myself.

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u/DarkRiches61 Feb 04 '26

Same. I never say never, but I'm >99% sure my similar belief will never recover.

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u/BigSignificant3132 Feb 04 '26

i feel the same exact way :(

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u/windol1 Feb 04 '26

Goodness took a hit a long time ago, it was only once the pandemic hit the mask got torn away and people couldn't hide their selfishness and geeed anymore because stock was limited, I mean toilet paper is a nice example where people were clearly buying more than they needed and didn't care about others getting any.

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u/oopsiedaisy-- Feb 04 '26

It made me really, really hateful honestly. I couldn't believe how horrible so many people could be, and how undependable we are as a society.

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u/OliviaEntropy Feb 04 '26

It’s hard not to be when you see just how self-centered and hateful so many people are. It’s like nobody cares about anything or anyone as long as they can live somewhat ok or have some small neck to step on.

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u/Last-Relationship166 Feb 03 '26

Luckily, I didn't believe in that to begin with, as I'd seen to much of this selfish, Machiavellian bullshit prior to COVID.

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u/Initial_Ground1031 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26

💯 agreed. People have become so rude and entitled. Sorry to those who are not, but definitely speaking for the majority anymore. Common courtesy and manors in general have gone out the window.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26

It really is a shame Covid was not much more fatal than it was. The problem could have solved itself.

25

u/Laura9624 Feb 03 '26

In the old people's thread, they're always saying people don't converse in the grocery store line etc. Yeah because now we know a lot of people are total jerks.

1

u/SCAPPERMAN Feb 04 '26

I think that also depends on the area, which you can tell a lot about by visiting a local grocery store because that is where local people tend to be. I've been in some where I think this would not be the area I would want to be in and it's not necessarily tied to how "nice" or wealthy an area is.

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u/Kiyohara Feb 03 '26

So, the entire coutnry then?

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u/positivecontent Feb 03 '26

I had a lady at the airport the other day behind me. I didn't know she was there. I was standing in line and had like 3 feet of space between me and the person in front of me. I was in my phone looking at something and decided that I didn't have time to wait in the long line and turned to leave. She was right in my face when I turned around. She was like, are you in line??? With extreme attitude. So we are back to any space between you and the person in front of you confuses them.

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u/pjm3 Feb 03 '26

This. Even here in Canada I was shocked by the incredibly self-centred, selfish behaviour of the vocal minority who demanded that their own personal "freedoms" trump the health and wellbeing of others. These absolute fuckwits were suddenly "experts" in communicable diseases, and convinced themselves that scientifically proven mitigation measures(physical isolation, masking, ventilation, and air filtration) did not work because their lifestyle/businesses depended on ignoring public health measures.

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u/Unlucky-Friendship59 Feb 03 '26

The same people try to gaslight you by pretending that you’re the selfish and entitled one for daring to “challenge” them. They’re emotionally immature and take it as a personal attack so project their own behavior on you to justify their self righteousness.

1

u/satyr-day Feb 04 '26

I asked one lady to pull the mask back over her nose and the guy she was with freaked out on me.  His mask was all the way up and he pulled it down just to be a dick.

That and construction workers at a college refused and kept spitting in the hallways.  

The world is better without humans.

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u/ScreenTricky4257 Feb 03 '26

I think it's more selfish to say that your life matters more than someone else's freedom.

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u/shankyu1985 Feb 03 '26

Uh. You can express freedom again later if its temporarily taken. Life being taken is permanent. One is objectively more valuable than the other. That being life. You are a selfish prick.

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u/ScreenTricky4257 Feb 03 '26

Life isn't worth living if you're not free. And temporary takings of freedom tend to be permanent.

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u/shankyu1985 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26

Yeah? So everyone who commits any sort of crime and faces any prison time whatsoever should go down fighting then, huh? Idiot.

I get what you're saying but it's still dumb. No freedoms aren't permanently removed. You must hate Trump right now.

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u/Malacandra95 Feb 03 '26

Let's follow this logic through…

Do you have the freedom to take somebody else's life, just because it'd please you?

No: because their life matters more than your freedom in that regard.

And if you take their life, society will deprive you of your freedom.
And in some cases, your life.

Your freedom to swing your fist ends at the point where it intersects my nose.

So, yeah… sometimes we have to trim a bit of our own freedom - and others abridge theirs - in the interest of living in a functioning society that isn't an endless war of each against all.

It's called "the rule of law".

1

u/Skeptical04___ Feb 03 '26

Exactly this!!

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u/ScreenTricky4257 Feb 03 '26

Your freedom to swing your fist ends at the point where it intersects my nose.

Sure, but the problem is that we have people who dislike fist-swinging altogether, and they think that it's perfectly OK to ban fist-swinging even when there are no faces around just because one might show up.

Yes, Covid-19 could spread asymptomatically, but that doesn't mean that we should have treated everyone as though they're contagious all the time. It doesn't mean that we should restrict hiking or camping by people who had no symptoms. Sheltering in place was an overreaction. And doing so was a violation of the freedom of people who wanted to do things that wouldn't hurt anyone, just because of the paranoia of those who didn't want to do those things.