Please give the snark a rest ... it's too clever by half.
But you *are* highlighting where conservatives get into trouble and why we have such trouble winning national elections: Too many get so caught up in their righteousness that they forget people matter; and that they matter as much as principles and ideals.
Wearing a mask in an elevator to calm the fears of a 75 year old woman is not being a "mask zealot". It's being a decent human being ....something conservatives who use phrases like "mask zealot" would do well to learn and remember.
"People matter" very much to me which is why I am so critical of those who, for no valid reason other than to maintain a high level of increasingly irrational fear, dehumanize people by requiring them to hide their identity and by forcing healthy people to appear as though they belong in an infirmary. (I acknowledge there are circumstances -- such as the one you cite -- that must be addressed as they may arise.)
My use of the term "mask zealot" to describe someone transfixed by the current mask craze (perhaps only temporarily although I anticipate this mask-wearing fad will extend, by design I've concluded, to the first Tuesday in November) is a perfect description of a person who, still frightened by a virus which death rate continues to plummet as it runs its normal course into the fourth month, demands that everyone in every situation wear these ineffective, unhealthy often-contaminated disguises at all times.
That you are offended by the term "mask zealot" being applied to you, my considered advice is to stop behaving as one by demanding conformance in the face of conflicting data and by disparaging those who have seen through this ongoing politically-inspired and controlled chaos. Wear your face doily if you must but declaring that doing so makes you "more decent" and "more caring of others" (that is, more "righteous" to use your derogative) than someone like me who, having worked with PPE for more than half a century sees the fallacy being promoted incessently that "wearing a mask stops the spread of the virus", and who has observed the devastating effects on society caused by forced mask-wearing, is arguably dishonest ... and it is in some respects cruel ... cruel to those who have been led to truly believe that selecting, applying/fit testing, wearing and maintaining a mask the way most everyone does protects them from contracting and spreading the germs. This is simply not so.
Now, back to my first cup ... Cheers!
“Wearing a mask in an elevator to calm the fears of a 75 year old woman is not being a ‘mask zealot’”
Well, my mom is 96, is immuno-compromised, won’t wear a mask, and thinks that people who do are bat-shit crazy. She lives her life as she always has. If a 75-year-old woman in an elevator is fearful, she needs to get her heart right with God.
2 Timothy 1:7 - For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.