A typical progressive position about masks that I run into when expressing my view that in a free society, each individual gets to decide according to their individual risk and health profiles whether to wear a mask or not:
Totally down with personal freedoms if a choice to wear or not wear a mask only affected the mask (non) wearer. But someone else not wearing a mask *does* impinge on my own personal freedom. They can give me a motherfucking virus that we don’t yet have a widely available vaccine for.
Online progressive
My response:
First, the likelihood that bodily fluid from a known carrier lands on you and infects you without YOU being somewhere and having done something (like touched your mask) is almost impossible. By leaving your house, you have always consented to the possibility of infection… or how did flus spread before?
What changed this season? Politicians and the media overreacted, then colluded to scare you out of your mind for a somewhat novel flu with a 99.6% survival rate.
My not wearing a mask does nothing to impinge your freedom. Wearing a mask may create a placebo affect, sure. It may affect how scared/”safe” you FEEL, but you don’t have a right to freedom from fear. Think of it this way, driving a car can be deadly but we don’t call every driver every day a potential murderer. And if you believe that non-maskers are infringing on your right, what “right” is that?
Look, we live in entirely different places, too, and masks certainly aren’t warranted in NH. If there were dead people in the streets, I’d reevaluate what I need to do for me to stay/feel healthy, but given the reality vs. the “pandemic story arc,” as a healthy, free human, I’m making the best choice for me, and you should do the same for you.
My body, my choice, right? Or, are you actually arguing, my body YOUR choice, ‘cos that’s a bitterly steep and dark path. And THAT’S why I am speaking up.