Thanks for your kind comments, Dorabella, and I agree with many of your comments above.
I think you've hit the nail on the head about the fact that in past decades (pre-2000s) events and issues closer to home seemed far more important to us, unlike today where we're constantly bombarded with stuff on 24/7 news channels, social media, etc with the slightest violent incident in say, London, or even in another country and we're all muttering 'oh what's the world coming to', 'kids today....', etc, whereas in the pre-21st Century era many of those horrible events happening elsewhere probably never would have registered, unless they were of a very serious and extreme nature, of course.
Personally (love her or loathe her), I think a lot of the mass 'virtue-signalling' rot first started with Princess Di's death back in 1997. Plus nearly everything nowadays has to have some kind of label and/or 'buzzword' attached to it, which I find mega tedious.
And thanks for coming to the defence of my current town of residence, whilst certain 'wards' went through a bit of a bad patch back in the early 90s, which was also largely blown out of proportion by the local press at the time, it's hardly gangland/'bandit country'!
As I'm sure you know very well, our original hometown of West Brom has had a lot of stick over the years, but I don't in any way feel ashamed to say that I am originally from there.
Sadly, there are many people who seem to revel in place-bashing, regardless of each place's respective qualities and/or deficiencies.