It’s bizarre that there are still people who have been convinced into having hangups about wearing a respirator mask. But I still hear about people feeling awkward or even embarrassed or something about themselves or others wearing masks. This is despite the fact that covid is still all over the place even in the middle of summer, and large portions of the U.S. have been enduring terrible air quality levels. And there are lots of people still at serious risk, in fact anyone not vaccinated for covid recently is in the high risk category. The mask phobia induced in some by blatant and open attempts at anti-mask brainwashing is really bonkers if you think about it. I remember some kids mocking people who wore glasses back in the 1970s and thought that was pretty kooky even at the time. I think there are eugenics undertones with some of these attitudes, and eugenics has certainly made a comeback in mainstream America recently. But imagine having hangups about using oven mitts to get a hot pan out of the oven without burning yourself. Imagine feeling shame about wearing a life jacket on a kayak, or fleeing an erupting volcano. It’s really that silly. There was a time when people chafed and eschewed seatbelts or quitting smoking, but we know now that was all pushed by industry propaganda. So let’s not fall for mask hangups just because some industries wrongly believed masks are a threat to marketing and set out to deliberately stop masks in some cases with advertising. Strangely, there are times when people I guess feel too awkward to react to a fire alarm, and may lose their lives as a result. There will always be rude people who act like jackasses of course, and big money industry pushing their own interests, but we wouldn’t look directly into the sun or let ourselves be eaten alive by mosquitos just to please some jerks, would we.
