I'm walking around minding my own business, not spitting on people. People who wear their masks while riding a bicycle or walking down the street are making decisions based on what a biased media has told them, not science or data.

Which is why I chose two private domains in my examples - a consumer retail environment and public transport, both of which were subject to a change in culture 100-odd years ago, wherein prior boors wouldn't have even questioned spitting on the floor.

'Clearly that is rude' to a modern audience.

I don't disagree with your views on people wearing masks when there's no one about, or they're in a car or on a bike, etc, but you didn't make a distinction initially between that and places where it's reasonable to expect people should 'just shut up and put a mask on'.

It's never a reasonable position that someone should "shut up and do what I say". So many pro-science and rational thinkers have let fear totally consume them. I'm not sure why. The death rate for COVID-19 is less than 1% of infected.

It's more 'stop being a prick and be polite'. Society is a series of rules, stated or otherwise, that the generality gravitate around. It's not rocket science, it's just manners.

One has every right not to wear a mask, just as a business owner has every right to deny someone access to their facilities.

Masks are irritating, but the sheer histrionics that they are causing in some quarters is ludicrous and is clearly more 'anti-science' (if that's really your criticism here) than the masked contingent is.