Originally Posted by maxcityjones

I frequent several of the multi use trails locally. Over the past year or so, people have growing increasingly strange, distant and hostile. I usually try to make eye contact and smile with people as I walk or ride by (I ride slowly on the multi use trails). In years past, especially when walking, quite a few people would make eye contact, smile back and many would say hi.

All of that changed this past year, as most stopped making eye contact, except to stare at me with fear or wariness out of the corner of their eye.

In the past couple of weeks, oddly, it seems like the friendly vibes have returned somewhat. Today for example, multiple people smiled and said hi to me as I rode by. I suspect that the tensions and anger caused by the perceptions of the previous administration have dissipated.

As an odd coincidence, I visited one of the chillest friendliest coffee shops out of town a couple of weeks after the previous president was elected in '16 and the employees were acting wildly out of character: yelling at customers, and generally strung out and angry. I never returned to that coffee shop!

It's strange that politicians can have such a profound effect on people's emotional welfare (assuming my suspicions are correct), one way or the other. What are your experiences recently? Any coincidental changes in people's mooods and behavior in your experience?