A wise man commenting on the CDC's mandates:

All of this gives rise to the great question: what was the point? Maybe it was all a mistake and now it is gone forever but that’s unlikely. The intellectuals who pushed this project on the world have a view of the world that is fundamentally ill-liberal. They differ among themselves on the details but the general approach is technocratic central planning rooted in deep suspicion of basic tenets of freedom.

How many people on the planet have now been acculturated to top-down control, socialized to live in fear, accept whatever comes down from above, never to question an edict, and expect to live in a world of rolling man-made disasters? And was that the point after all, to breed low expectations for life on earth and relinquish the soul’s desire for a full and free life?

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Persephonee · 22-25, F

While I've got overwhelming sympathy with your viewpoint, I think it's worth saying also that yours seems a very American perspective, in terms of its conception of 'liberty' (which so often seems to consist in nothing so much as 'no one can tell me not to do X-thing-which-is-actually-intrinsically-harmful if I don't want them to').

In Japan, (a different culture to be sure), people still readily wear masks over and beyond what was commonplace pre-Covid, not out of slavishness but out of courtesy to others.

the point I'm awkwardly making is that maybe the red-blooded freedom-loving Americans AND the CDC have it wrong, in seeing the situation either as demotic resistance to centralisiation, OR as a 'we in the federal govt know best'. Dealing with a disease maybe just requires thinking about other people a bit more, and curtailing one's own actions a little as a result, and where people seem thoroughly incapable or unwiling to be sufficiently selfless, having a little stick along with the carrot (ie "mask mandates").

Not at all saying this applies to you personally, but anecdotally to a lot of your countrymen. And (lest you think I'm being unfair) a lot of my own in the UK as well.

I think we're all in danger of losing perspective, whether we over- or under-estimated the danger that Covid-19 posed/poses.

MrBrownstone · 46-50, M

@Persephonee People didn’t wear masks at Woodstock

SatanBurger · 36-40, F

@Persephonee [quote]Dealing with a disease maybe just requires thinking about other people a bit more, and curtailing one's own actions a little as a result[/quote]

People who are anti maskers seem to share traits with narcissistic personality disorder because one of the traits of NPD are usually non compliance with rules unless they view it as beneficial for them. NPDs usually believe they are "special" and therefore "sensible" rules don't apply to them.

In fact, several studies have shown that during the pandemic specifically, narcissism played a big role in public's compliance with the rules:

[b]https://teepee12.com/2020/10/19/are-anti-maskers-narcissists-by-ellin-curley/[/b]

Since you mentioned America, in the article they said that Americans actually have higher rates of NPD than other Western countries and no one knows why which is the reason why we are different than let's say, Japan. In order to address the pandemic response of the public which America was one of the worst offenders, we would need to address NPD.

In short, telling them to be selfless is like telling Ted Bundy to have empathy.

hippyjoe1955 · 61-69, M

@Persephonee If you had ever taken a course in industrial masking you would know how utterly useless and even dangerous the masks you want everyone to wear truly are. They can not stop a virus but they do harbor all kinds of pathogens your body exhales. I have taken multiple courses in mask usage and the class always has a joke mask. The surgical mask is it. Tell you what. Try wearing a surgical mask on a site with asbestos.

Persephonee · 22-25, F

@hippyjoe1955 one does wonder why surgeons wear them then. Its not for the psychological benefit of the patient... they're unconscious

Persephonee · 22-25, F

@SatanBurger i blame Protestantism personally 😜

hippyjoe1955 · 61-69, M

@Persephonee First of all a lot of medicine is based on tradition and not science. My friend had his knee replaced and was conscious the whole time. He said the only ones in the operating theater that were wearing masks were the ones actually cutting and stitching. Everyone else was maskless. The reason I heard for mask wearing by those operating is to keep spit or blood or other bodily fluids being passed from surgeon to patient or vice versa. Everyone in medicine knows that such masks don't prevent viral or bacterial spread. They can't. They don't seal against the face and the filter medium is too porous.

SatanBurger · 36-40, F

@Persephonee That's a good point.