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That gets complicated but it's not necessarily true. I work in retail. I would prefer to only associate with people wearing masks but many of my customers choose not to wear one. Using your argument I should quit my job so that I don't have to 'hang out' with people not wearing masks. Does your right to not wear a mask supersede my right to keep my job and support my family?
Masks are not mandatory here, choosing to only hang out with people who wear masks means not only would I not be able to work I would also not be able to enter any store, get my car repaired, visit my doctors office, or many of the other things necessary to daily life. Telling others they need to isolate might sound great in theory, but it's much too simplified to actually work on any kind of scale.
Good point. You don't need to quit your job to appease others. Even in a non pandemic situation, private businesses have the right to require masks should they choose. And require them for decades beyond the emergency if they want to. There will be businesses that agree with you. And businesses that won't. You have the freedom to choose who to frequent based on your feelings on the subject.
I have thought that this might be a possibility - at least in my lifetime.
I have thought "so what?"
If scientists, biologists. epidemiologists, doctors etc. say we need to do that, I will.
You are looking at it through a political lens.
Stop it. It's stupid.
It's NOT POLITICAL - it's SCIENTIFIC.
If we "have to wear masks: to be healthy - we wear them.
For as long as needed.
That's the point of this thread. Is to address the political aspect whilst avoiding the bipartisanship of politics. It's a fine line. The science also shows a majority of people asymptomatic or experience mild symptoms.
Most of the mask policy is based on the fact that we don't know much about the virus, rather than its danger level. If I didn't have a television or internet, or any connection to the media world, and I journeyed into the heart of say, Seattle or New York, saw the individuals with masks, spent time with hobos coughing toward me, then went home: would the symptoms or even the odds of me showing symptoms at all based on the percentage that are asymptomatic, cause me to believe a pandemic is afoot? Or would I need the media to tell me there is a problem and I should be protecting myself?
Staying on topic: for all intents and purposes, this virus is relatively (loose term) harmless. Yet here we are with emergency orders and mandates flying around.
For as long as needed. Like when its written into permanent law? That long perhaps?
You are referring mostly to federal laws passed by congress and comparing them to mandates enacted by states and local governments in a emergency. I have lived in Hurricane areas. They have mandatory evacuation orders. They do not last forever. We have had curfews put into place this year and previous years. They also do not last forever.
What stops it from eventually becoming a federal law? I mean these masks are so good, they could reduce sickness every flu season. Let's write it in that masks are required for every person who leaves their home forevermore.
Yes I'm familiar with temporary emergency orders. But Orders can quickly turn into law.
I haven't looked into it personally but I'm sure somewhere there have been studies. These generally aren't meant as a protection for the person wearing them, basically they are just a personal sneeze guard, in much the same way a bandanna or mask is.
We have some of our employees wearing the shields instead of the masks and there haven't been any complaints about fogging up, the biggest irritation seems to be the red line it leaves behind on your forehead when you take it off, keep in mind the employees are wearing them for at least 4 or 5 hours straight though.
and in some situations the light reflection inside the mask can be annoying to the person wearing it.
many Americans object to Islamic -style 'hijab' head coverings
but you have to go beyond that to the 'niqab' so everybody would look like a ninja. What if we ALL looked like Islamic ninjas?
It is illegal to drive a car with a full-face helmet on, on public roads. Think about all them speeding cameras, those traffic pole survellience cameras, can no longer identify individuals. Crimes would certainly go up.
Think about, all the people, who have spent a small fortune on botox duck lips, facelifts, micro-dermabrasion, acid peels -
and suddenly all that is wiped away by a govt enforced mandate to wear a mask everytime you are out in public.
Skin cancer on nose face lips and maybe ears would probably go down to ZERO, the same way schoolshootings went down to zero during the lockdown.
Even makeup like 'lipstick' would be obsolete, and the value of teeth bleaching and would go down.
Your naked face, would become something hidden, something sexualized, covered by lingerie. Revealing your bare face, would be akin to removing your underwear.
How draconian will the enforcement be? Will you get a ticket for not having a mask? Will they shoot you on sight with tranquilizer darts?
With this post be ludacris and irrelevant when read in the year 2022?
I hope with my heart this post is 'ludacris' in a year or two.
We know that driving at high-speed means higher kinetic energy and less time to react to some obstacle ahead in the road. Fast driving is more dangerous than slow driving. It's going to kill or maim more people.
In most states, the open-highway speed limit is around 70 mph. In the future, would it not seem barbaric, that our speed limits were so high? I mean, between the more ghastly fatalities at those speeds, the wear on the roads and the environmental damage of burning more fuel to produce the horsepower to reach those speeds, would it not be the civilized thing, to reduce speed limits to 55 mph? Or maybe even 35 mph?
Such a callously selfish society... fanatically enamored of high-speed driving, despite such grievous cost of lost lives and damaged environment!!!
The whole 'future society will see us as barbaric' statement loses me every time. I woe a society where safety is the only consideration and people are no longer free to enjoy this life, however short it may be.
Thank you all for the responses and for keeping the topic mostly on track. We always run into the hard believers with stern statements, whether for or against the original post. But for what its worth, I'm happy for the discussion generated here.
It seems we live in a society that cares more for safety than personal freedoms. I am not stating that is good or bad, this way or that. People do still have the freedom to feel as they please, without backlash.
My personal opinion is the rules are an overreach. I feel this 'pandemic' was not so much a coordinated attack on personal liberty as it was the inevitable result of a society driven by popularity and the media. A lot of politicians are simply trying to appease the demands of the loudest people in society. And the media is far and away the loudest.
WWII. 1918 Flu Pandemic. 9/11. Katrina. So many times in recent history have we had an emergency that we have responded to. Some people pulled together. Others ignored it. Every time the world and/or the United States emerged with whatever you might call success. WWII being a win. The 1918 pandemic being a 'whoever survived carried on' situation. 9/11 in my eyes being a loss. Katrina a loss too.
But we are still here. Whether rules are instituted or not, followed or not, we are a small part of this world. Somebody earlier in this thread said the virus doesn't know politics or bipartisan arguments. It simply does its thing. Kill the weak and leave the strong. We can accept that and let it run its course. Or we can institute rules and protect our weak, so they may live a little while longer.
Whatever we do. The world will move past this and so will humanity. To me, the laws are simply boiler play.
Good point. You don't need to quit your job to appease others. Even in a non pandemic situation, private businesses have the right to require masks should they choose. And require them for decades beyond the emergency if they want to. There will be businesses that agree with you. And businesses that won't. You have the freedom to choose who to frequent based on your feelings on the subject.
Again, businesses here don't require them, and people are choosing not to wear them, everywhere I go there are people without masks. How much freedom to choose do I really have to frequent a 'safe' business? In practice I don't have that freedom. If I need to conduct my life I WILL be around many, many people who do not wear a mask, there is no 'choosing' for me. You can't have your freedom without having it affect my freedom.
[/b]Again, businesses here don't require them, and people are choosing not to wear them, everywhere I go there are people without masks. How much freedom to choose do I really have to frequent a 'safe' business? In practice I don't have that freedom. If I need to conduct my life I WILL be around many, many people who do not wear a mask, there is no 'choosing' for me. You can't have your freedom without having it affect my freedom.
Well, you are a victim of geography. Come up to the Seattle area where I live and you'll be hard pressed to find a single person not wearing a mask.
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