I’m sure you are a conservative in many regards.
But your reaction to the mask debate is dripping with Leftist smugness, and intolerance of opposing views.
Isn’t it obvious by now that not everyone agrees about mask wearing?
Life is full of risks.
The Constitution was designed to protect the rights of individuals to deal with those risks as they see fit. A liberal believes the Founders got this wrong, and that citizens should comply with one-size-fits-all consensus responses.
When liberals are prevented by the limitations of the Constitution from getting their way, they always resort to false appeals to ‘science’, straw man arguments, and name-calling.
Life is full of risks. We choose to deal with them in different ways. Your way is not the “ONE. THING.” that will save us. The scientists you choose to believe are not the only scientists.
That is why in the USA, we don’t govern by committees of bought and paid for scientists.
In a Constitutional Republic, my opinion carries the same weight as yours, regardless of how many scientists you can line up who agree with you.
Remember, I listen to doctors and scientists too - just different ones - perhaps not as well paid as yours.
Appreciate the reasonable reply..
The challenge, as I understand it with masks is this. Your mask protects me (and others). My mask protects you (and others). That’s because the main function of masks is to reduce spread, not to protect the wearer.
So, we’re in a situation where MY health risk depends on what OTHERS do. And if the others take a “I’m not going to care and will do what *I* want to do” approach, the virus is going to continue to spread..and spread..and spread. Because there are a lot of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases out there, in addition to the obvious symptomatic ones. But even that..you have sore throat. Stuffy nose. You go out anyway. Surprise, it’s COVID. And you just infected dozens and possibly hundreds of other people if you don’t wear a mask. THAT is the problem with the “you do what you want, I’ll do what I want” approach.
The USA has the highest number of cases in the world today. Highest deaths to-date. Highest deaths per million. An economy in shambles. Millions of unemployed. Contrast that to Hong Kong, which is a lot more densely populated. Everyone wears masks. Deaths to date? SEVEN. (USA - 128,000 plus). Deaths per million? Less than 350X ours. Pretty simple to see - masks work to reduce spread.
One would reasonably think all of us here - or at least “most” of us - would want to do everything humanly possible to get our economy back on track, and get rid of the virus to the largest extent possible.
No-one (rightly) complains about “no shirt, no shoes, no service”. Or about smoking in restaurants (can’t do in most places). That’s because those things put OTHERS health at risk. Not YOUR health. So why on earth are so many of us pushing back on the ONE thing we can to do reduce spread and get our economy back? I for one am pretty tired of watching my portfolio drop by big chunks, recovery by smaller chunks, back and forth like a yo-yo. And if we don’t get this fixed, I TRULY do not believe Trump is going to win in Nov - because the virus is “THE” issue to most of the people outside the FR bubble that I’ve talked with. If the virus and economy are not fixed by November, there is little chance (keeping it real, based on “normal” people I’ve talked with) that we are going to win in Nov. Don’t we want to win? I sure do.