Parker MolloyMay 2021, December 2022
Emma Green must be cursed to keep writing the same exact story where she sneers at people who wear masks
Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. have died from COVID between the publication of those two pieces, but she seems as unfazed as ever and convinced that people who took COVID seriously were somehow overreacting.
It's just such a frustrating type of journalism, with the writer's pre-formed opinion driving the direction.
And, I think it's worth keeping in mind, that these types of articles (there was another just the other day in NYT about "the last holdouts" i.e. people who still wear masks) are taking issue with people *choosing* to wear masks places. For the most part, mask mandates (which were always pretty limited) just aren't happening anywhere anymore. This is all very "your personal behavior irritates me and I don't like to be reminded that COVID happened."
It's bizarre. It's controlling.
Because while there's definitely a collective argument to be made that other people *should* mask (as their lack of precautions increase everyone's risks), there just isn't an argument to be made for why people *shouldn't* wear masks if they choose to.
Greg Stolze@parkermolloy Ridiculous! There are certainly arguments to be made against masking!
"If my waitress is masked, how will I know if she's pretty enought to try the techniques from that expensive PUA class? Hm???"
"Masking makes it much harder for Ring doorbells to contribute to a private sector panopticon stranglehold! WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE PANOPTICON?!?"
...OK, I never said there were GOOD arguments...