this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (5 children)

where it's still ok to wear a mask without ridicule

Serious question, why are people being ridiculed for wearing masks in the US? Is this generally how it goes in all of the US?

I'm from Asia and most countries here have been wearing masks even before the pandemic for multiple reasons - pollution, not wanting to spread sickness including the basic cough and cold not just flu or COVID, when at a clinic or hospital, etc. I wear a mask even when I just have allergic rhinitis just so that I don't accidentally blow snot all over somebody else. No one would bat an eye here if you wore a mask.

I don't understand the negative connotation to wearing masks and why anyone would care if you're wearing one.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (2 children)

US culture is founded on individualism at the expense of everyone else. A lot of people buy into the idea that any kind of government imposed action, even as minor as wearing a face covering that even helps the wearer, is a horrible tragedy and assault on their ability to make bad decisions. Those people are belligerent and numerous.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The US government were also months late to handling COVID, and the conservative leadership in power was actively demonizing safety protocols such as masks, vaccines, social distancing, etc not to mention their own Center for Disease Control, to the point that a fair percentage of the population is distrustful of medical science and unwilling to consider those safety protocols.

A lot of the news media (left and right) focused on things like getting people back to work in spite of the ongoing pandemic so it really forced the narrative away from collective safety and survival into economic prioritization and the illusion of normalcy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

The news media also focused on the demonizing by conservatives for more advertising clicks instead of promoting the safety measures by the CDC as reasonable and worth listening to.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But abortions must be banned, because 'murica.

There is no logic, just very bad people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You either seem to have people who just care about themselves and their comfort and beliefs only, or people who pretend to care about others, only to satisfy their ego and beliefs in the process, sometimes at the expense of the group they pretend to care about.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Or just people who want to control other people for their own feeling of power.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Politics, the party in charge decided that the best response was to pretend the problem didn't exist and maybe it'll go away. Wearing a mask is a very public sign that there is a problem.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeah. In Malaysia before covid, every flu season i could see some people(not a lot) start wearing mask, and people masked up as well in hazy season. Just before Covid become the pandemic i can see people already started to wear one before the mandate. Of course, nowadays some butthurt netizen will still jab at those wear mask here and there, but other than that, i still see people wear mask everywhere i go, which is a great thing. Sanitary and personal health shouldn't be something that get ridiculed.

But then again, it's Asia, and SARS is pretty big back then.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

And notably they're not really two entirely unrelated things. "SARS" is SARS-CoV-1 and "COVID" is SARS-CoV-2.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe before the pandemic someone somewhere might have said something but not now. Even living in a rural area people don't say anything at all. I don't know where that user got the idea that you'd be ridiculed.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I still frequently wear a mask in busy/crowded areas and have probably received a dozen comments about it in the last week alone. So it definitely happens.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I don't wear a mask anymore, but people glare at people that do. I also got a lot of harassing comments when I was wearing a mask last year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That's interesting, guess it's different around here. No one says shit and I'm in the rural south.