You know, I’m not actually nervous about getting it. I’ve been out and about since the beginning, so the mask thing for me has not been about self-preservation. I believe it is foolish and selfish for those idiots who make a political statement about it to not wear one, completely ignoring all of the evidence that wearing one significantly reduces community spread risk.
But I’m not one of these nervous nellies out there who stupidly believe that society should grind to a halt, and that we should hemorrhage trillions of dollars to lifeline an economy where, if measures were put in place and actually followed, we could have been 90% operational this whole time.
As for the matter of principle question, it is principle but not in the two-dimensional way that people tend to reduce this idea down to. It certainly goes beyond the oversimplified signaling and symbolism that the mask has come to represent. It actually stretches deeper, to my contempt and growing disgust for those in society that willfully ignore facts and evidence, and who would prefer to squander their vital attention (the world’s most scarce resource) on the trivial consumption of nonsense, necks bent down to their phones as they uncritically absorb what they think to be the truth. It’s a problem I have witnessed in both Republicans and Democrats — the death of critical thinking. This contractor, with his crack hanging out of his filthy workpants, and his pockmarked nose, dripping and hanging out of his soggy mask, represent to me the tipping point of society to where we have wholesale given up on the societal bonds that once held us together, and have sold it all for the quick stimulation hit of a doom-scroll, like some scumbag junkie who sells the house and jewels for enough drugs to last them just a few days.