not specific to shoplifting (traffic violations are much worse) but the general “fuck you, what are you going to do about it?” behavior that you see everywhere on a regular basis seems like a problem
It's less that he's nicked something - I've almost certainly seen someone desperate or a kid grab something & run and forgotten about it, because we all know that goes on - but the outright brazen nature of it, 'yeah I can do it, what're _you_ gonna fucking do about it'.
I think social media lets us see bad examples of it regularly, but I also think a lot of people learned from covid that rules are fake and some day you will die so YOLO.
My thesis is that Trump+George Floyd+COVID finally ended many people’s belief in the myths of American society. They were cracked by 9/11 & Iraq and the 2007 fin crisis, but 2016-2020 was a last straw for many.
i can meet you halfway, but i think a lot of people have deliberately made a decision not to give a fuck about anyone else under the cover of larger claims about principle
To that end, it’s hard not to notice the clear trend online of ppl using therapyspeak as a way of justifying selfish behavior. Theres been a shift towards more awareness of mental health in public discourse, which is great, but like so many other things, ppl looking for an excuse have seized on it
I think every generation has their "one thing that ended the myths". You go through school being taught that the USA is the greatest and then you hit your 20s and you start to look around and get disillusioned. For GenZ - COVID, GenY - Iraq and the GFC, GenX - Rodney King, Boomers - Vietnam.
Each generation has to relearn the lesson that while there are many great things about the US, it is not perfect and some people take this as an excuse to completely withdraw and pretend like nothing matters. In some ways it's a childish response to having your fantasy exposed for what it was.
A woman in her 60s recently told me about how she had to go into her doctors office through a separate door in 1960s Mississippi because she was black. Somehow people think we are in a worse place today than that???
I have mixed feelings.
I've definitely become more libertarian (but not actually Libertarian, fuck no. I'd say "classically liberal" but that is also tainted.) as I've gotten older and realized that it's possible for me to be wrong, and therefore also possible for the crowds or the technocrats.
A lot of regulations do suck, or really *are* because a handful of people can't be trusted to make good judgments. Yes, there's a bit of "I am the special one who always makes good judgments" implicit in this, but I demonstrably make personal judgments at least above the societal median.
The emissions and noise level behavior of my project/utility car basically doesn't matter. I drive it a miniscule number of miles a year, and at some point in the near future my daily-driver will be all-electric.
I'm still mad that the focus on automotive safety and efficiency have, partially accidentall, made cars worse for everyone, but mostly worse for pedestrians.
They've also made cars more expensive and fragile, which has made an entire generation loathe them as expensive anchors instead of as liberating tools.
That stacks as the reaction to the perceived lawlessness. The general vibe is "no cops!" and that manifests differently for different people. Some people run red lights, some people strap up before getting groceries.
