General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMasks are the latest political, cultural divide
Kevin Krannawitter won't wear a mask because he just doesn't think it's necessary, whatever the scientists say.
Marilyn Singleton won't wear one either, because she says it's un-American for the government to force people to cover their faces.
You won't see Ricardo Thornton in a mask because it reminds him of a time when he wasn't free to make his own decisions about his life.
Even as governors, mayors and the federal government urge or require Americans to wear masks in stores, transit systems and other public spaces to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, the nation is divided about whether to comply. And it is divided in painfully familiar ways - by politics and by attitudes about government power and individual choice. Almost overnight, masks have become common in some places, even as they are still rare in others.
For Trump's supporters, declining to wear a mask is a visible way to demonstrate "that 'I'm a Republican,' or 'I want businesses to start up again,' or 'I support the president,' " said Robert Kahn, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis who has studied Americans' attitudes toward masks. "Masks will quickly become the new normal in blue states, but if social distancing continues through 2022, the mentality among Republicans could well change, too: If I can go to work and the cost of marginal improvement in my life is wearing a mask, maybe Americans of both parties do accommodate ourselves to it."
For many Trump supporters, the mask seems to be a symbol of an approach to the virus that weighs too heavily against relaunching the economy. Kevin Krannawitter, who lives in Lawrence, a small college town in Kansas, said he is eager to get business moving again, and although he tries to follow all sides of the issue, he worries that "in general, we are hearing the science-only side. Things tend to get overdone, and people take things too far," he said.
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Across-nation-masks-are-the-latest-political-15211794.php
OAITW r.2.0
(24,528 posts)to use our healthcare systems should they come down with COVID-19. Put theeir lives on the line for their principles.
Edit - Use, not sue...
DrToast
(6,414 posts)People need to wear masks to protect others.
All these yahoos without masks can become infected and run around spreading the virus. Masks are necessary to mitigate this.
Arkansas Granny
(31,523 posts)than protecting the wearer from contracting CV-19.
Submariner
(12,504 posts)If I see a Trumpie coming my way in Publix, Costco or Walmart without a mask, and they will not take my warnings to stop encroaching on my 6-foot radius of spacial distancing and back me into a corner, then they are going to get their face crushed with a can or whatever it takes to get that moron's breath away from me.
I will consider any infraction on my space and cornering me so I cannot walk away safely as attempted negligent homicide, and I will defend myself until the vaccine is available.
brokephibroke
(1,883 posts)For the good of humanity.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,783 posts)Dude, there is no other side. There's science and there's bullshit, and you're choosing bullshit.
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)There are then the "alternate facts" to support that contention.
We are descending into the gray goo of a form of moral relativism based on ignorance. I don't think a culture or society can thrive or even survive long based on that.
There is also the framework of logic and reason in the philosophical sense in order to determine truth by way of premises, deduction, induction, abduction and syllogisms along with the recognition of demonstrable fallacies, which I think is more relevant in this context than the empiricism of physical sciences in a general and political sense. In effect, the rejection of that kind of structure, or the blatant rejection of it, leads to the rejection of the findings of science, et al.
We are in danger of an intellectual and moral oblivion based on the populist moral relativism and the like being foisted onto the culture now with a heavy hand in order to achieve that.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,783 posts)There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. - Isaac Asimov
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)We need education that puts and emphasis on critical thinking early on.
That's one of my favorite quotes and I am glad to see it again. Sadly, it is very true and the Dunning-Kruger effect seems to be a way of life for many Americans these days.
Arkansas Granny
(31,523 posts)spanone
(135,855 posts)LuvNewcastle
(16,847 posts)And he and his followers believe that thinking, for lack of a better word, a certain way about something can influence reality. For instance, if people don't believe the 'hype' that this is a nasty virus that kills a lot of people, their belief can influence the virus's effect on us all. People aren't really dying in large numbers, it's all media exaggeration. If society closes its eyes to these deaths and bad news, the virus will go away. People wonder how the Nazis took over Germany. This is how.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,855 posts)The sneers at me for wearing a mask at a local grocery store was a clue. They always had a Trump rally look about them too, but its hard to describe. I guess they just looked like dicks with their strutting mannerisms.
tanyev
(42,589 posts)to make it easier for the first responders.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,101 posts)Link to tweet
?s=20
Renew Deal
(81,866 posts)DrToast
(6,414 posts)Not wearing masks puts OTHERS in danger.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)My own perambulations basically consist of taking the dogs to different parks, but I pass stores on the way.
Ive noticed a definite uptick in mask wearing.
sanatanadharma
(3,713 posts)By the end of summer, the covidiots will be easy to recognize by their coiffed hair and absence of facial tan lines.
Also, they will be fewer in number, but still able to ignore all evidence to the contrary of their own contrariness.
kairos12
(12,863 posts)Princess Turandot
(4,787 posts)Link to tweet
Link to tweet
I assume the bandana-wearing one will claim that for that brief moment in time, she thought that she was Jesse James.