And then it becomes easier for someone to ignore you, and not wear a mask when it might help.

Like it or not there will always be shades of grey and discussion and nuance. Trying to ignore that is how you get extremism and identity politics. If you're tired of talking about something - don't talk about it. But oversimplifying and becoming absolutist is dangerous.

Mind, I'm not trying to silence discussions around masks. I personally don't want to hear it every single time there's a chance for someone to just throw a "fucking masks, am I right?" in a discussion and it devolving into a mass of useless, uninformed and generally uninteresting opinions, and that's when actual extremism and identity politics start to show itself (us vs them, woke vs the sheeple, freedom vs muzzled), thankfully not on this forum.

OP mentioned masks and homeless. This sub-thread has 5 comments about homelessness in San Francisco, and 69 comments about masks, and it's far more interesting trying to understand the homelessness situation in SF, which is absolutely bonkers IMO, than the same old hot air talk.

First we had the COVID experts and/or denialists, now we have the mask sceptics. I really can do without that.

I hear ya - it is indeed tiresome. Just as a general thing though, the conversations we have need to move away from 'telling [them] to just do [x]'.

In Britain, a lot of my friends got upset about Brexit and Election Results and said things like 'we told them not to vote for..., then we told them again to vote for...' - people do not like being told what to do. You gotta win hearts and minds. Sure, a lot of the more vocal ones are a lost cause best left to their own demise - but it's still worth it for most.

> I've heard so much mask discussion since the beginning of the pandemic it's much easier for me to tell someone to wear one and just, pardon the French, STFU about it.

So following your logic that someone has to wear mask and STFU just because you decided so? Sorry to say that but we are not in dystopia yet luckily and you can tell _yourself_ what to do, but STFU about what other people have to.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean I need to hear one's bullshit. The point is that the mask talk is a useless argument everyone jumps into whenever there is the occasion. Everyone has something to say about it.

Do whatever you (not you in particular) want, just quit moaning about it. It's as interesting as discussing political affiliations.

> Freedom of speech doesn't mean I need to hear one's bullshit

As a matter of fact, it is. Not particularly about your hearing of course, but about expressing everything, even things you may consider as BS. You can be wrong, aren't you?

> Do whatever you (not you in particular) want, just quit moaning about it

Couldn't agree more here, but this statement is contradictory to the one you've made before. Glad you changed your mind.