***Well, this is something Barr and I are in complete agreement on. I bristle when I see people in masks. It is deeply offensive to me that I live in such a culture of easily led sheep. This does not bode well for our future.***
THIS!!!! I feel the exact same way. And I really bristle when I see a lot of my conservative friends who have jumped on the mask bandwagon. It sends the message that every human being is merely a walking bag of germs.
It sends the message that every human being is merely a walking bag of germs.
I have heard that if it were possible to remove every part of you that is “you” and leave everything that is “not you” (bacteria, etc.). You would still look like “you”.
And that touches on my problem with this. People say “well, we wear clothing to hide our naughty bits, so why not this.
The reason is simple. Clothing has to do with modesty and handling diverse climates and weather conditions. Animals have fur. We have brains. But the mask thing is a completely different dynamic. It quite literally inferferes with the minute by minute, second by second functioning of your body. You mess with that at your peril and only if the consequences of not doing it are worse than the consequences of doing it.
And not all consequences are direct health results. Some are long term. Some have to do with communication. And then we have the real problem of committing crimes with masks on, etc.
The real question that should be asked is this: To modify our culture, we need to define a risk threshold that necessitates it. For example, the flu or common cold does not cross that line. So, where is the line? It varies from individual to individual. A tiny minority were wearing masks before CV19 even became a thing and that was their right, though most would say that either they had no immune system or they were just hypochondriacs.
But the bar should be extremely high regarding direct risk before the government gets involved. This thing never got close to that bad. The curve was flattened and there is no longer any need for general social distancing or wearing masks. And many of us believe there never was any need. And now that we know so many “deaths from CV19” were really deaths “with” CV19. So they even had to pad the numbers to make it look bad enough to get involved.
And once the government is involved, we are no longer a free people.