It’s actually a very weird combination. Many Americans won’t wear a mask even though they know their individual risk is greater, because they don’t want to appear as if they’re part of the wrong collective. Americans are very individual and very tribal at the same time. Hostility can come from either not respecting their right to individuality or by asserting your own right to individuality if your behavior conflicts with their in-group. [source: several decades of being American]

We were also lied to by capitalist mass media and both political parties of capital, which helped people double down in their cognitive dissonance to their own detriment:

https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/how-the-press-manufactured-co...

In America, wearing a mask is a political statement. For a while it was: “we don’t like Donald Trump”. But now, it’s basically, “we want to protest something, we don’t want to show our faces, if the situation gets out of control we’ll be unaccountable”.

There are plenty of others I see (admittedly less so, but still daily in the affluent Bay Area) who drive around in their cars, alone, with masks on (non-Uber) and people who show up at the gym everyday wearing a mask while walking on a treadmill. I toured a preschool earlier this week where the teachers were all still required(?) to wear masks in the classroom (a bilingual Chinese immersion Montessori program).

Admittedly, I’m pretty anti-mask, and for those reasons: it dehumanizes interactions. That said, (for those still reading) I wish masks were a norm for when people were sick and carried no additional activist messaging. I fully support that use case and appreciate my fellow humans who wear them in those circumstances.

But then also, I’d expect those interactions to be rare, because if you’re sick you shouldn’t be hanging out with others, but self isolating.

“ For a while it was: “we don’t like Donald Trump”.”

I’m about as liberal they come, and so are many in my circle. But not one person wore a mask for the sole purpose of not liking Donald Trump and then using a mask as a statement. That’s a bizarre take.

If you find this to be "a bizarre take" you're insulated in a liberal bubble (which you freely admit), sorry to break it to you

It is a bizarre take. This isn't a "both sides" thing. Only one side (Trump supporters) made refusing to wear masks or vaccinate a part of their political identity, specifically to spite "the left." Whereas every "liberal" I'm aware of wore a mask because of the pandemic, out of a concern for their own health.

Gallup, among others, found that liberals, exclusively, massively overestimate covid risks:

https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/354938/adults-estimat...

Yeah, this is exactly what I meant. Wearing a mask (I guess, or not?) is a political affiliation. It’s stupid. I don’t claim either party, for what it’s worth (“no party claims me”; I’m happily unaffiliated).

Oh yeah, probably not causation. Definitely correlation. My point was that mask retention was greater in blue areas as compared to red areas.

It may have been absurd how quickly masks were given up in red areas (don’t know; wasn’t there), but our laggard approach in Santa Clara county certainly was and felt reactionary.

> But now, it’s basically, “we want to protest something, we don’t want to show our faces, if the situation gets out of control we’ll be unaccountable”.

I wear a mask when out in public and my reasons, which are multiple, include but are not limited to "I have an immune compromised family member and don't want to be the one who kills them" and "I myself have been sick only once in the last 4 years and I'm pretty happy about that".

But why is it a problem if someone's wearing a mask alone in their car? It doesn't affect you at all. Your opinions on the matter are just unsolicited noise.

It shows they they are doing it to make a statement and not for any scientifically backed reason.

That being said, there are many situations where it still makes sense:

- Feeling sick and on your way to pick up someone else

- Just dropped someone off and haven't taken it off yet

- It's not easy to take on and off so you just leave it on

- You're only driving for a minute and will need it when you get out.

So they're still wrong, but I see why they said it.

The first one makes sense, but the other ones don't resonate for me. Is it hard to take off a mask? When would I ever need a mask when I get out of my car (I only ever exit to the outdoors, unless I'm parking my own garage). If I'm going to need to put it on before going into a store, I would just put it on before going into the store itself.

Don't these measures incentivize selection for organisms that can stay infectious in the body for longer? They would need to suppress or fight the immune system harder. If everyone coughed down each others throat the variations that spread do not need to have these super powers