Both parties are beholden to the wishes of corporations over natural persons. About 5% of the Democrats holding national office don’t fall into this category, but they’re so few in number they can be ignored when making a statement about the party as a whole.

Both parties don’t have politicians who are actively tweeting about their rights being infringed upon because they are being asked to simply wear a mask.

Then you don’t see it. Middle East terrorism has been replaced as “the thing” and medical terrorism is what has replaced it. Global warming was too unconvincing, so it seems like TPTB picked this instead.

It’s not about the masks, it’s about being stuck with this for two decades as they try to frighten and terrorize everyone with medical diseases, which allows the government to do whatever they want unopposed. Non-compliance with the masks is usually people protesting this more than they are trying to be inconsiderate to other people. Also, if you think a crappy cloth mask is going to protect anyone else, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. (For the record, I would have a different opinion if our government had mobilized producing actual medical grade masks and mandated that.)

This crisis may be even scarier than the Middle East terrorism thing though, because it encourages self righteous dingbats to rat on their neighbors and use the state against their neighbors. It’s all in our own backyard now. And people are doing exactly what the party wants, and it looks to me like like how the neighbors and kids behaved in 1984.

And there’s endless obscure diseases they can highlight that everyone mostly just glossed over before. COVID-19 headlines starts to run flat? Just highlight a new strain of it to whip the fervor up again... oh wait.

You’ll surely call me a conspiracy theorist, even though I’m simply applying that I learned from the Middle East terrorism situation on to this one, but I don’t care. I have already seen this for what it is, a real disease but being hijacked as a tool to manipulate and control people, and have moved on. Don’t be fooled, there’s to be no “back to normal.” Ever. The mask non-comply-ers are simply having a hard time of letting go of the life they knew.

You have to be either incredibly base or willfully ignorant to not understand and have empathy with your fellow citizens.

That’s true. But, it doesn’t make things any better knowing we have the choice between a bad party and a worse party. First past the post, the Electoral College, winner take all style contests, and campaign finance law all work together to keep them both in power.

Believe me, I’d love to get rid of the ultra right wing party and the slightly less right wing party.