First of all, I truly don't believe wearing cloth masks are in any way effective. If an unlimited supply of of the N95 masks were available, that would be a different story. Or if respirators that were deemed worthy of filtering out the virus were widely used and available, that too would be a different story.
Back in 2020 wildfires were raging across the PNW, and the Willamette Valley was inundated with smoke, occasionally so thick that the resulting poor visibility made it unsafe to drive, much less be outside. A local news-talk radio station hosted a guest from a prestigious medical teaching university. This doctor specialized in respiratory diseases and functions. The host ask the doctor if the masks everyone was wearing was effective in preventing the inhalation of the fine smoke particulate. The doctor said no, they were not effective, even if wet. While I don't think he intended to do so, the doctor mentioned the size of the smoke particulate, which it turns out was larger than the covid virus. The host didn't catch the faux pas. What the doctor was essentially saying, without actually saying it, was the masks were ineffective against the smoke and also ineffective against the covid virus.
There is plenty of evidence the cloth and disposable paper masks are not effective in slowing the spread of any virus. You just have to capture it before big tech is able to squash the information. The rates of infections, serious cases, and deaths are nearly identical between states like California and Oregon, where mask mandates were strictly enforced and states such as Texas and Florida where mandates were much less severe. This is not debatable. The numbers don't lie.
Why is it that you were required to wear a mask while being escorted to your table at a restaurant? But once seated, you can remove it? Does the virus know not to infect anyone while you are seated? I'm well aware this virus was concocted in a Chinese lab, with our taxpayer dollars funding it, to be considerably more potent than the original virus. But who knew that is was also an intelligent virus, able to distinguish between folks sitting down (leave 'em alone) from those walking around (Go get 'em tiger).
I mostly hate the masks for what it represents. The lies. We have basically been lied to since day one. Two weeks the flatten the curve. It'll all be over by summer. The vaccine will fix it all. The masks won't prevent the spread, oh wait, yes it will, but you need to wear two, maybe three. In a small way, I am disappointed in President Trump. This virus hit us during his time. He was optimistic. He wanted us to live our lives. But it didn't take him long to get beaten down by the relentless "bad" news. He soon followed the little tyrant and bird lady's lead. I can't pinpoint when I knew he wasn't (and a free America) going to win. But it was obvious by late May or early June he was beaten. Should he have fought harder? Yes. Would it have made a difference? I can't answer that.
But in a grander scale it also represents our willingness to give up our God-given rights and freedoms for a false sense of security. How many of us wear the masks, not because we believe them effective, but because we don't want to be accosted by some Karen or Brad in the parking lot. Yes this happened to me, and I essentially told them to preform an act that is physically impossible.
Several years ago anti-communist activist Vaclav Havel wrote an essay titled "The Power of the Powerless". In this essay he describes how people go along to get along. They may not actually support the latest government mandates, but being powerless as an individual, they act in what is in their best interests. Go along to get along. Think about how you behaved during mask mandates. Most likely you wore one, grudgingly. You may have walked into an establishment with a mask in hand and took the temperature of the room, so to speak. Were people wearing the masks? If there were, how many? Were the mask wearers in the minority, or barely a majority? If you were in the minority, did you put the damn thing on? And when the mask mandates were over (briefly) did you stop carrying that ineffective piece of cloth? And did you pretend you were vaccinated just so you could stop wearing mask?
Havel also points out that if enough people people stop this self destructive behavior and many act as one, they are no longer powerless. It doesn't even need to be a majority or even a slim minority. It just has to be enough.
In every crowd you can split the group into three. The groups won't necessarily be even divided, but a combination of any two will form a majority. In one group you have the followers. Often these folks are also referred to as sheep. Easily manipulated. CNN watchers. On the other end are the leaders. These are the sheepdogs. Fox News watchers. They take care of issues, and don't wait for others to act. As a very general rule followers tend to be progressives, while sheepdogs tend to be conservative.
In between these wildly different groups are what I call the watchers. They are malleable. In my opinion this group is fairly evenly split progressive/conservative. They always have their wet finger up, checking which way the wind is blowing. When this group drifts one way or another either the sheep or the sheepdogs have the majority.
It wasn't too long ago that the airlines decided to no longer mandate the masks. We've all seen the reaction videos when the announcement was made. People ripping off the mask. People cheating. It was obvious from these videos that people did not like wearing the mask. How many of those people were go along to get along folks? How many knew the mask was worthless? How many were cheering, not because they could take off the mask, but were cheering because the charade was over? How many felt finally vindicated? Noone knows for sure. But I will say this: sheepdogs also travel. If those sheepdogs (we) had stood their (our) ground from the very beginning, could we have stopped these mandates in their tracks. If half the plane had said "nope, we aren't wearing the face diaper", would the outcome had changed? Would the powers that be realized that mandating masks was a bridge to far? Imagine how different the last two might have been if the watchers had joined with the sheepdogs.
The watchers, during the mask mandates, felt it was best to acquiesce because it seemed the wind was blowing that direction. Since the sheep control large swathes of society, especially the media, it sure felt the best crowd to associate with was the sheep.
An anecdotal story for you. Last fall my family went down to San Diego for a week on Mission Bay. We went to Ralph's to stock up. I have family living in SoCal. We were aware of, through them, and the media, the draconian mask mandates. I dreaded going to the store. When I said I didn't want to go, I got the wife death stare. All guys know what this means. So I went, mask in hand. Imagine my surprise when I entered the store and saw that at least half the people were not wearing the face diaper. It took about 20 seconds for me to rip mine off my face and stuff it in my pocket.
As you can see, there were times I just went along to get along. And I am disappointed in myself.
We went along to avoid the hassle. To avoid the confrontation. Think about how many viral videos that are out there about someone on a plane or in a store who gets confronted by some a-hole with a camera phone. We didn't want this to happen to us. But looking back, those people who were belittled should be considered rebels. They stuck to what they believed and damn the consequences.
As I pointed out above, I had my own confrontations. There was a line I wouldn't cross. If I was outside, there was no way in hell I was going to wear the mask. IT JUST WASN'T GOING TO HAPPEN. That is where my confrontations happened. As I said, I suggested they do something that wasn't physically possible.
There has been some talk that the mask mandates might come back in some locations. But the tide might be turning against the would be tyrants as there seems to be an undercurrent that is saying "Not this time."
It remains to be seen though whether the sheepdogs have convinced the watchers.
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