Actually, the society is actually a lot more humane then we think. We wouldn't servive this long as a species if we did this to each other. Empty is an important part of evaluation that shaped us to be the way we are, making a community our strongest aspect of survival. People with empathy and children would understand where this person was coming from. The reason why I'm pointing out empathy, is because in the story the MC noticed how everyone has a blank face and no emotions. Like robots with one mind, not thinking for themselves. That makes it feel like there is seriously something wrong with this town.
Have you not had a look at what is happening with society currently? Also as humans i think our fear outweighs our empathy sadly
Don't get me wrong, our society is not perfect by any means. There will always be bad people as there will be good people. The dynamic of a large population like a country can be very complicated as class playes a huge role in it. It becomes a game of who can clime the social latter higher and what they're willing to do to get there (then ofcourse add the whole subject of religion and how people use it to exuse their disgusting behavior, it's a lot). But if we remove all of this and take a small town where people depend on each other, the dynamic can drastically change. If you where to look at a small town, you'll notice how people tend to have eachother backs, then for example in the big city where people don't even know eachothers neighbors. That's why the dynamic of this town feels off, because in practice it's been shown that people act the opposite. Thing is, while things are going hard right now, they actually not only have always been this way but way worse. I mean just think how society was a 100 years ago and how far we've come. I don't mean to say this to invalidate your hurt, it's just that in the past I've also always been very pessimistic when it came to society. It wasn't untill I took some classes on this subject that it showed me how people can and have really come together and it was what helped us to evolve this far. It gave me a peace of mind. Don't loose hope, nothing is permanent and if we where to look at history, we are always steadily moving forward to make things better for everyone. It's not a straight line up, it's more like a zigzag line but still going up.
Don't worry I don't see it as you invalidating my hurt but sadly I still think society would be like this I do have hope we have changed slightly but I feel like you are not taking into account in apocalypse situation fear and the fight to survive would be heightened
Everytime I see media with an apocalypse in I'm reminded that this is probably how society would react sadly