A prediction about masking: Soon we'll be seeing many incidents in which those who choose to protect themselves with KN95s etc face harassment, even violence. Because this was never about freedom.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) April 19, 2022
You say not wearing to wear masks was never about freedom.
Well, it was absolutely crystal clear that making people wear masks had nothing to do with stopping COVID or saving lives.
Actual data demonstrated that universal masking was useless. Some masks, such as a properly fitted N95, had some effect under limited circumstances, such as a patient coughing wet mist into a nurse’s face at close proximity. Two people walking past each other in a grocery store wearing cloth masks made out of an old bed sheet was utterly worthless.
The real point of masks was as a talisman and and badge. Those who were good people and complied with bureaucratic fiats, and those who were bad people and didn’t.
The entire weight of federal, state, and local governments were brought down on people who didn’t want to mask.
No shopping, no going to the gym, no living life if they did not cower in fear of what bureaucrats and politicians said about COVID and complied with every capricious mandate.
Maskers who wanted mandates and unconstitutional regulations to protect them from the impossible, catching a highly communicable airborne respiratory virus, shut down society, crashed the economy, ruined lives, harmed children, and killed people with depression and neglect.
Now that mask mandates have been ended by judges, there are still true believer hypochondriacs who are threatening society with their histrionics.
No.
I will not forget what you did to us.
I will not forgive you for what you did to us.
The people who go about masked and give the stink eye to the rest of us for being unmasked deserve everything terrible that can be done to them.
Each and every one of you deserves to be treated like Belgian women who slept with Nazis. Forever pariahs, unwelcome in society and driven out with abuse.
I wish that I could say that I’m shocked at how some people are clinging to masks, but I can’t.
At the grocery store yesterday, I saw man wearing an N-95 style mask…under his nose. Oy vey.
I have (mostly unsuccessfully) tried to use my nursing and OR background to explain the use or lack thereof of masks. Sigh.
Some people are frightened and some people want to control others. Put them together….
I think Krugman is only half-right. Continued mask-wearers might get some crap, but the violence will be from mask-wearers against mask-free folks.
Making a bit of a mistake there.
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Krugman is a leftist. That means words (that he does not agree with) literally ARE violence.
On the other hand, a fellow leftists that actually uses physical violence against a conservative is just “expressing their right to free speech.”
Oh, I agree they claim “words are violence,” I’m just saying that the only *real* violence will be from mask wearers.
As usual! (Krugman, half right).
Krugman knows less about anything, economics included, than Sandy Cortez.
Krugman has never accurately predicted anything. His employer doesn’t want him to.
Uhh, I expect the opposite of his prediction. I’m expecting to see masked people freaking out when someone who isn’t masked gets too close to them. I’ll give the stink eye for sure, because it’s either mental illness or theater at this point to keep wearing them. Its a free country and if you want go continue sucking your own CO2 go for it. But you do NOT have the moral high ground, so keep your masked mouth shut where it concerns the rest of us reclaiming normal life.
Krugman: Soon we’ll be seeing many incidents in which those who choose to protect themselves with KN95s etc face harassment, even violence.
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This already happened among State employees in Oregon, except for the “choice” part.
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Background: Oregon required COVID vaccines for State employees — allowing (but subtly and strongly discouraging) medical and religious exceptions — and required masking indoors at all offices. As of March 11, the indoor masking requirement was lifted except for those who requested and received a medical or religious vaccine exception; those folks had to continue masking indoors until April 1.
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For those keeping score, that’s almost three weeks of Scarlet-Letter-style singling-out and harassment. One lady posted on F***book (sorry, can’t find the link now) that a man called her “Murderer” in passing. She asked why. He said she’s unvaxxed. She asked how he was so sure. He pointed at her mask and replied to the effect of, “Only unvaxxed have to wear N95.”
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Mind you, after the mask mandate was lifted masks remained optional, so he really had no way of knowing. But the mask was enough for him to make the accusation. (Also, this is what COVID Cult believers think of the non-jabbed. Prepare accordingly.)
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Being as cynical as I am, I might look at that three-week timeline and think that’s enough time to get in some good medical harassment, and have it be done quick enough that even if someone sued immediately, by the time it was heard in court the mandate would be lifted and the suit would be declared moot. And that’s assuming you could find an Oregon judge not firmly on the side of the administration — good luck with that!
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Going forward, I expect the same as other commenters here: It’s the masked Branch COVIDians who will be harassing the unmasked, not the other way around as Krugman predicts.
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Pure projection: Accuse the other side of doing or wanting to do what you’re currently doing or want to do.
Well, I’ll be on an airplane tomorrow.
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My prediction is that if there is any mask-related drama on the flights, the source will be the masked who demand everyone else do the same, regardless of law, science, sanity, etc.
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We shall see.
Let a branch covidian come at me. For TWO years I could not go in a store, get my hair done in Nevada or get on a plane. Now I can. Just come at me, please.