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.
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)