You are absolutely not alone in those experiences. What you’ve described is almost exactly the paradigm of experience since the pandemic- people are just bizarre and unpleasant, even while espousing a desire to make connections. It’s a bit mind boggling, but also very lonely.
It kind of feels like we are STILL isolating, except there are large cohorts of toxic people who aren’t, and so stepping foot outside is inevitably a run-in with some jerk, or jerkette.
Well, if it clarifies things at all – most of those dates were pre-pandemic. The only date I described that was post-pandemic was the woman who was cool but came on too strong.
People, in general, don’t seem really inclined to make any kind of lasting, substantive connections and the pandemic just exacerbated the social and economic spiraling that was already extant. It also forced the majority of US Americans to see that there are no safety nets and our leadership (regardless of political flavor) is almost laughably inept/corrupt/blasé; in other words, no one is coming to save us, and that outlook is grim. So the average person, understandably, has some tunnel vision and a kind of deep, subconscious sense that things are going to get worse, regardless of their efforts to the contrary. That’s rocky ground to build any kind of foundation.
You are absolutely not alone in those experiences. What you’ve described is almost exactly the paradigm of experience since the pandemic- people are just bizarre and unpleasant, even while espousing a desire to make connections. It’s a bit mind boggling, but also very lonely.
It kind of feels like we are STILL isolating, except there are large cohorts of toxic people who aren’t, and so stepping foot outside is inevitably a run-in with some jerk, or jerkette.
Well, if it clarifies things at all – most of those dates were pre-pandemic. The only date I described that was post-pandemic was the woman who was cool but came on too strong.
Eh, I think my points still stand.
People, in general, don’t seem really inclined to make any kind of lasting, substantive connections and the pandemic just exacerbated the social and economic spiraling that was already extant. It also forced the majority of US Americans to see that there are no safety nets and our leadership (regardless of political flavor) is almost laughably inept/corrupt/blasé; in other words, no one is coming to save us, and that outlook is grim. So the average person, understandably, has some tunnel vision and a kind of deep, subconscious sense that things are going to get worse, regardless of their efforts to the contrary. That’s rocky ground to build any kind of foundation.
Agreed, the point still stands 100%. I just wanted to make sure that the timelines were clear.