Comment by ThrowAway1922A | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ThrowAway1922A | Hacker News Reader

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> I think lockdowns did incalculable social harm to society.

I don't know about society, but this was the straw the broke the camels back for me. I have not been the same since, I don't think I ever will be. The first lockdown in my province was when things really started to go wrong for me mental health wise in a major way and it only got worse as they continued.

What's really been maddening is that people get angry when I mention the affects it all had on me, they assume I'm taking a political stance first and foremost, they tell me it wasn't that bad, and they try to tell me I didn't experience what I experienced or do what I did.

I used to think things could get better, but I really don't see a happy ending for myself anymore.

Am I looking in the mirror now? Can relate exactly to the T.

You're not alone. Today, every decision that I make is done with the objective of insulating myself non-violently from future coercive actions by the state similar to those during the coronacrisis. For example: expenses, domicile, career, voting.

I know many similar people, formerly of all different political, philosophical and religious persuasions. My rough estimation is that this voting bloc is between 20 and 35% of western society.

To those who disagree: although we are products of the same society, we have simply a fundamentally different view of liberty, happiness and risk tolerance.

> Am I looking in the mirror now?

I hope for your sake you aren't. If you are though you have all of my sympathy, someone like me looking back is not a good thing.

And yet some of us actually liked that period of time where we were at home more, had more time to do things like bake bread, cook actual meals, read, etc. I think in my case my mental health declined for different reasons: As someone with health anxiety in the best of times, it started to dial up to 11. This was not even related to "lockdowns" - I had no desire to go anywhere where people congregated. The fact that there was a contagion out there and that there wasn't really any way out of it (until the vaccines showed up) was what led to many people's mental health decline.

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