Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar hell. The GP contained a provocation but the thing to do with those is ignore them, not single them out and then blow on them until they flare into war.
In no way did I do what you're claiming. Please unflag my post.
I'm a bit flummoxed that you would say that, since your post is a textbook example of partisan flamewar. That leads to extremely low-quality discussion, inevitably evoking worse from others. Please don't.
My post rebutted a claim. It didn't inflame anything, nor did it escalate the conversation. Readjust your sensors. And unflag the post.
You think the base got there all on their own, miraculously? The had activists that saw this as a way to push their agenda, and politicians that went along for the ride and reinforced it.
The base is multiple tens of millions of people spread across the entire United States and in many socioeconomic strata. The only time anything gets as widespread acceptance by even a portion of the base like the mask thing is because a narrative was being pushed that most of the base was exposed to. That used to be a hard thing to do (easier if you could rely on a large religious bloc to see it one way), and now it's a frighteningly easy thing to do. That's the point.
"Politicians and activists" obviously didn't politicize masks. No coherent reading of the last 2 years supports that conclusion.
It was the screeching Republican base, who decided on day one that the masks were a symbol of government overreach and I guess got Covid to own the libs.