It's the opposite in red states. People harass strangers in public for wearing masks. Same vibe as the maskers in blue states. It's the never-maskers vs. the ever-maskers.

It's been almost two years since I've started regularly going places in a 'lib' town, and I've yet to see any of the thousands of maskless people around me get harassed.

Just because there's like five videos of it happening back in 2021 on r/publicfreakouts doesn't mean it's a normal occurrence.

What "maskers in blue states"? I hardly see anyone in a mask, let alone harassing people not in a mask.

That was my question! Where is this happening? Cause I'm really having a hard time reconciling people's random online claims with anything I've seen while out and about daily near me...

Is there just an Extremely Online segment of the public that keeps repeating 2020's arguments without actually getting out much to see that basically everyone else has adapted as case counts have died down and people have gotten vaccinated?

Are you not in a city? I still see people masking all the time, though it’s never a lot of them unless the setting still requires masking. Most folk dance events I would otherwise be attending still require masks, and often N95s. There’s much less lingering masking and vaccine requirements in the suburbs, though.

I'm in a city and it's very rare for me (my wild guess is <1:50) to see masks outside of the doctor's office or other medical facilities. My usual haunts are restaurants, bars, gyms/fitness studios, retail, coffeeshops, movie theaters, and sports events, which is hardly the entire world, but I would've thought it was a big enough slice that claims of harassment in public for not wearing a mask startle me.

("Elder millenial" or whatever the fuck demographic they're calling it now, if that's a factor.)

That’s a bit hyperbolic. I live in a red state and usually see a few masked people each day (typically elderly, minorities, or peacocks). One thing I have never seen is someone harassing someone in a mask.