I still mask, I think COVID is super serious and I work with immunocompromised patients in a hospital, and I take public transit, so it’s just generally a good idea. I am very, very, very vaccinated, but I’m still not comfortable unmasked. Two angry men on separate occasions have made comments to me about masking and how I don’t need to do it. I just stare right through them and ignore, but why are they so angry? It does not affect them in the slightest, and if they think I’m stupid have at it.
Just tell them you’re contagious, and don’t want to pass it on to them.
I’m immunocompromised and I wear a mask whenever I go out. When people challenge me, saying “COVID is over, and anyway, it’s just like a cold”, I tell them that it’s not over, it will never be over, over 100 people in our local city went to hospital just last week, and another 30 or so died from it.
I think that people know deep down that COVID really is serious, they don’t want to admit it or wear masks, and seeing people taking it seriously makes them feel threatened emotionally and philosophically.
My theory is that they see as a religious garment like a hijab/niqab, something you only do if you are a pro-illuminati cultist.
Edit: Or maybe they view it like a liberal version of the Maga hat.
Have you tried being a six foot tall male with visible anger issues themselves?
Due to immunocompromised people I regularly interact with, I masked and isolated much more and much longer than the average person in my area. I still keep a mask in the car and on my bike. They also come in useful when you don’t want to be recognized or bothered by people. I’m not sure if they cause problems for some facial recognition tech, but that would be a welcome bonus.
I also mask. People don’t generally talk about it here, and masking wasn’t even very common back when the pandemic was taken more seriously.
Never faced any aggression but people do give you a wide berth which is kind of hilarious to me, but it doesn’t bother me at all.
The wide berth I don’t care about, although mostly it’s still pretty normal to see masks in hospitals, but some creep in a Fuck Trudeau shirt reeeeeeing at me about it on the bus I could live without. I always make sure to wear earbuds and just pretend I can’t hear them.
I rather like the wide berth people give me even though it doesn’t make much sense. Like, anyone could have Covid, but if I had it and I wear a respirator I’ll be less dangerous than someone who has it and doesn’t wear one. I get that people equate respirators with spooky but that’s just because they haven’t thought about it.
Thinking back on it, there was a single dude that spoke to me randomly. I think it might have been because of the mask but I’ve genuinely no idea, I always wear ANC headphones and ignore people. It helps my anxiety a lot.
Sadly, the people that will really appreciate you using a respirator are those you generally don’t see out and about because they can’t be, it isn’t safe for them.
Trump made masks political, so wearing one is a political statement to these people.
They have made their political beliefs their entire personality to compensate for their low self confidence and so have to aggressively display their beliefs like a peacock anytime they think somebody is challenging those beliefs, regardless of how benign or irrelevant it is.
I dont think its just one US president
The same problem is in Romania too
Aye, as an American, I have only a limited view of the big picture, but my understanding of it is that while it was definitely a politicized issue across the globe, a lot of the far right extremists were emboldened to make it such a big issue by the actions of Trump and the Republican party in the US.
Like that convoy of Canadian Trump rioters who can’t even vote for him if they wanted to because they live in Canada. Trump’s been a poster-boy for crazies all across the globe.
Ill give you the term for it at the end because everyone hates the term. Its the same reason those people hate vegetarians, and gay men, and renewable energy, and small cars. Wearing a mask is consideration for others, its compassion for the vulnerable, its protecting yourself. Its weak, effeminate, unmanly. The whole of conservatism boils down to: toxic masculinity
Just say you are protecting them whether they like it or not
Just tell them you have cancer and are immunocompromised. That usually shuts them up. Irrational people are not worth arguing with and sometimes this makes them think twice about harassing other or people.
“I have cancer…but the good news is it will be removed once one of us gets off this bus.”
Ooh I like that.
“I’m immunocompromised, do you harass alcoholics about not drinking?”
They most certainly do.
Two angry men on separate occasions have made comments to me about masking and how I don’t need to do it. I just stare right through them and ignore,
I just say I prefer wearing it and I’m more comfortable with it on. That generally works.
but why are they so angry?
Might go back to the conflicting and stupid instructions we got when the pandemic started. The public health establishment lost all its credibility and continues to mess up.
A lot of them got sucked into the whole “the government is forcing it on you to control the population”, and they simply can’t comprehend that anyone would voluntarily wear what they now consider being the symbol of submission to the government. In their mind it doesn’t work and never worked and you’re just virtue signalling your support of the government. It’s wild and a lost cause.
I’d expect it to get much worse now.
I live in Taiwan, people here wear masks for whatever reason and no one bats an eye. You can wear a mask if you are sick, have too much acne and want to hide it, or because you are a medical worker and need to protect yourself and patients like OP, etc.
It also helps that we all went through the SARS pandemic, which could be seen as the previous version of COVID. Unlike COVID, SARS transmits via respiratory droplets after symptoms like fever arise, so everyone learned to wear masks during that time, and it worked. When COVID came, we knew what to do.Oh SARS was awful. I felt for you guys.
Isn’t it about five years too late to be asking this question?
Agree. I voted Kamala but damn all these threads trying to make mountains out of molehills is pretty dumb.
It’s not because of masking itself. It could be anything as long as it has an association with a group, the opposing group will get riled up.
