The Luv Doc: Selfish, Distrusting, and Mean-Spirited

Dear Luv Doc,

I have anxiety caused by my belief that people have become more selfish, distrusting, and mean-spirited than I remember them being before the pandemic. I used to consider myself the kind of person who gets annoyed by people for entirely reasonable reasons, but people in Austin are such jerks these days. They cut you off in traffic, treat service employees horribly, cut in lines, and complain about literally everything – at least that’s how it feels to me. I try to consider my motives regularly, breathe deeply, be patient, count my blessings, and stay positive, but even with all that it feels like I spend an exhausting amount of energy wondering whether it’s me or the rest of the world that is the problem. Everyone around me seems louder, needier, and more arrogant than I remember, which is probably a sign of aging, burnout, or both. How do you keep your sense of humor when Austin feels more and more like a badly moderated comment section? Where have all the Slackers gone?

– Crabby in Clarksville

As best as I can tell, all the Slackers became successful artists, musicians, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs, which makes me seriously question their commitment to slacking. I don’t know. Maybe they got bored. There’s only so much of nothing you can do, I guess … only so many bowls of ditch weed you can inhale before you come up with a really brilliant, actionable idea that demands a sizable amount of investment capital, and pretty soon you’re ass-deep in the rat race, trying to cut the jugulars of all the other well-meaning competitors so that your unique, inspirational vision can come to life. Well, at least that’s what I hear. To be fair, there are probably plenty of slackers still around, living in the squalor of integrity, paying the high emotional rent of authenticity and sweating out the sweet nectar of sincerity, but they’re not out popping bottles and picking up tabs. They’re drinking Lonies and swatting mosquitoes on a dirty lawn chair in a weedy, overgrown backyard in far south-by-southwest Austin, complaining about dress codes, door lists, and tasting menus … and bragging about how they haven’t been Downtown since 2015.

But look, Crabby. I ain’t saying you’re wrong. In fact, I like the cut of your jib. I like where you’re headed with this whole peace and patience and deep breathing thing. Gratitude isn’t the worst trait either. Furthermore, I will not gaslight you and try to tell you that Austin isn’t a douchier place than it was before the Lady Gaga vomit-painters performance on the Doritos Extreme® stage at SXSW 2014, which was followed by the aforementioned slacker abandonment of Downtown Austin in 2015 and the election of the Antichrist in 2016. These are not mere coincidences. They are data points in a larger pattern of spiritual and moral decline that is inevitable when you bring well-meaning people with money to a creative, interesting place. Inevitably they are going to want to spruce things up so that they feel comfortable hanging out and taking in all the vibrant culture. We used to do it at Liberty Lunch. Now we do it at the Skybox on West Sixth. I mean, it’s basically the same thing, only you feel more comfortable about dressing up.

I’m not sure it’s fair to expect kindness and humanity from a generation that has grown up almost entirely in the shadow of the bloated orange ego of our supreme leader. Slacker-age Americans can talk all we want about kindness, compassion, and humility, but it comes off as lip service when we elected an ignorant, corrupt, senile megalomaniac for a second term instead of a competent woman of color who now gets demonized with the same vitriol endured by Hillary Clinton. Yeah, America. It was their fault we elected this stupid fat fuck, not your repressed sexism, racism, and ignorance bubbling up into the ballot box. Please, by all means, share your comments below. Be spicy. We need clicks. That said, to answer your question, Crabby: I keep my sense of humor because I don’t have any better emotional tool to deal with my rage. Maybe I should try some breathwork.

This article appears in April 24 • 2026.