While Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has reinstated a mask mandate, and communities around America are doing the same, I am not going to wear one. As Erick Erickson wrote yesterday, “like hell will I wear a mask.” I earned the right to say that.
First of all, what you (and Jonah Goldberg) published this morning is probably where I'm at in my heart-of-hearts. I don't like the masks (and need to quit forgetting to throw mine in the laundry for a wash!) and I was very pleased that Chicago was going largely maskless this summer as we did the right thing with respect to the vaccine. I got my shot, so regardless of how the next couple of months play out, I'm not worried about the safety of anyone I know in my immediate Dunbar set.
On the other hand, as I've laid out in previous comments, I am annoyed (and periodically) enraged by the lack of compliance with the mandates in the few places we reasonably have the masking still in place (mainly the public transit system). I live in a city and neighborhood that gets a lot of out-of-town and out-of-state traffic, so it's not like I'm just riding the train with fellow Chicagoans who - for the most part (58%) - have gotten the first shot or more, but also from neighboring states who continue to punch themselves in the crotch with respect to COVID. (I'm looking at you, Missouri. Also, happy Lollapalooza weekend!) I continue to believe that it makes sense for the ongoing mask mandates on things like buses and train cars, not so much for me, but for the 42% of my fellow Chicagoans who still need the jab, so I don't think it's theatre as much as some folks (and riders) like to prefer otherwise.
As an individualist, I'll choose to keep adhering to the mandates, because it's a VERY short-sighted individualist who doesn't recognize that collective actions also create permission structures that can encourage or deter behavior based on what others around you are doing. Given that no-one has ever provided Step 2 for the scary Mask Gnomes (Step 1: Get people to wear masks. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Ultimate Power!), I'm going to continue to give my local health authorities the benefit of the doubt. For all the words that have been wasted on the. tyranny of masks, it's just a mask. Asians have been using them productively to protect themselves for years, and Americans going full crybaby over them really doesn't say anything positive about that vaunted American Toughness.
I think that if we start to see mask mandates expand out from where they are here, it's going to be a BIG political fight, even in this Democratic enclave. And I think it will be right to be a big fight. After putting the entire city on pause for a year, it's just getting back on its feet and I expect just about every business owner to shout that they've done their part, and they would be correct to do so. I expect the mask mandates to be political losers compared to the alternative approach of allowing businesses to requiring proof of vaccination for services. My hope is that we don't get to either point, but the fact that we're having this conversation is evidence of the lunacy of the world we live in.
As one of my friends once told me, we live in The Stupidest Timeline. I was hoping that a change in national skipper would have pulled us out of it, but we're collectively bound and determined keep authoring cautionary tales.
Jonah Goldberg has a good piece out at the Dispatch, where he gives his well reasoned views on the recent mask mandates. Broadly speaking, it tends reflects my own views as well. It is worth a read.
I live in kind of a sparsely populated area, so I've not masked since I've gotten vaccinated, until recently ought of an abundance of caution due to Delta(albeit limited to indoor establishments, and am not masking to the extent like last year). I have some extended family members we visit often that have issues with immunity and are advanced in age, hence the caution. The cautious nature tends to run in our family, and I'm not an exception to that. But I don't blame you a bit Steve, for your sentiments. Like you, I've followed all the rules, and have done so up to the point of getting vaccinated. I hope the occasional effects of long Covid for you are gradually decreasing and becoming more infrequent. I can't imagine losing taste and smell for a month, and going through what you did.
I really don't like having to pay the consequences of those who've not and are currently not making responsible choices. I still think the lion's share of the blame should go to anti-vaxxers and Covid truthers who've spread lies about Covid-19 and the vaccines for months now. I think some of them deserve to be beaten with a 2 by 4, as the consequences of their actions have contributed to governments erring on the side of caution.
With all due respect with everything you went through Steve, the issue isn't wearing a mask, it's getting vaccinated. The mask was always a stop-gap to finding the solution. I know people that had it and lived, i know people that got it and died; nobody should have to go through that. Sadly countless did and even more sadly countless will continue to suffer and in some cases die.
We couldn't stop it from coming here, we can stop it from spreading. There-in is the tragedy. We were headed to reaching herd immunity by right about this time (August 1), and then the jackasses started braying all the nonsense and drivel that made it more difficult. It's why i took the time to grab a handful of quotes yesterday; there's hundreds, maybe thousands of them out there.
I just listened to William Kristol and Johnathan V Last on their "secret podcast" for subscribers and they have it dead bang right. It's time to go after the charlatans that are preaching the bullshit. Sorry, not a nice way to say it. We are so close to being there and frankly the businesses and federal government mandates for the shots will help immensely. It will provide cover for those afraid of peer pressure.
There's always going to the be the fringe, those who simply refuse. I saw an interview with a man deathly sick in the hospital, as were several family members and when asked why they didn't get vaccinated, he replied, "we're republican's." Really? Every one deserves better than for an answer.
Let me repeat, the fight isn't over masks, it's about vaccinations and herd immunity. Everything else is minutia. No one wants to go back to where we were; no one. The path forward is simple; get vaccinated. Then we all get our freedom back, then we all get to return to normal. Until then we'll argue over the minutia and more will die and be in hospitals suffering needlessly.
The numbers grow worse daily; that's the reality of where we are. Unless and until we shut up the loudmouths telling us we don't need to be vaccinated nothing will change. Masks won't fix any of that. After all you've been through, you know that better than anyone.
I totally agree with you on everything. There's just one small problem. If everyone doesn't mask then no one will. And the longer this virus is out there the more likely it is that the virus will find a way around the vaccine. And just in case you don't realize this, the virus does not care about what you think you've earned. If it can it will find a way to infect you again. It will find a way to infect your family. Your friends, everyone you know.
I am confident my democratic governor will do what is required when delta makes its way up here. It's just a matter of what you southerners will have to endure before you say enough is enough.
I'm of two minds on this.
First of all, what you (and Jonah Goldberg) published this morning is probably where I'm at in my heart-of-hearts. I don't like the masks (and need to quit forgetting to throw mine in the laundry for a wash!) and I was very pleased that Chicago was going largely maskless this summer as we did the right thing with respect to the vaccine. I got my shot, so regardless of how the next couple of months play out, I'm not worried about the safety of anyone I know in my immediate Dunbar set.
On the other hand, as I've laid out in previous comments, I am annoyed (and periodically) enraged by the lack of compliance with the mandates in the few places we reasonably have the masking still in place (mainly the public transit system). I live in a city and neighborhood that gets a lot of out-of-town and out-of-state traffic, so it's not like I'm just riding the train with fellow Chicagoans who - for the most part (58%) - have gotten the first shot or more, but also from neighboring states who continue to punch themselves in the crotch with respect to COVID. (I'm looking at you, Missouri. Also, happy Lollapalooza weekend!) I continue to believe that it makes sense for the ongoing mask mandates on things like buses and train cars, not so much for me, but for the 42% of my fellow Chicagoans who still need the jab, so I don't think it's theatre as much as some folks (and riders) like to prefer otherwise.
As an individualist, I'll choose to keep adhering to the mandates, because it's a VERY short-sighted individualist who doesn't recognize that collective actions also create permission structures that can encourage or deter behavior based on what others around you are doing. Given that no-one has ever provided Step 2 for the scary Mask Gnomes (Step 1: Get people to wear masks. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Ultimate Power!), I'm going to continue to give my local health authorities the benefit of the doubt. For all the words that have been wasted on the. tyranny of masks, it's just a mask. Asians have been using them productively to protect themselves for years, and Americans going full crybaby over them really doesn't say anything positive about that vaunted American Toughness.
I think that if we start to see mask mandates expand out from where they are here, it's going to be a BIG political fight, even in this Democratic enclave. And I think it will be right to be a big fight. After putting the entire city on pause for a year, it's just getting back on its feet and I expect just about every business owner to shout that they've done their part, and they would be correct to do so. I expect the mask mandates to be political losers compared to the alternative approach of allowing businesses to requiring proof of vaccination for services. My hope is that we don't get to either point, but the fact that we're having this conversation is evidence of the lunacy of the world we live in.
As one of my friends once told me, we live in The Stupidest Timeline. I was hoping that a change in national skipper would have pulled us out of it, but we're collectively bound and determined keep authoring cautionary tales.
Jonah Goldberg has a good piece out at the Dispatch, where he gives his well reasoned views on the recent mask mandates. Broadly speaking, it tends reflects my own views as well. It is worth a read.
https://thedispatch.com/p/backsliding-into-mask-mandates
And David Frum today as well - let the market do its work at this point.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/vaccine-covidnomics-free-market/619620/
I live in kind of a sparsely populated area, so I've not masked since I've gotten vaccinated, until recently ought of an abundance of caution due to Delta(albeit limited to indoor establishments, and am not masking to the extent like last year). I have some extended family members we visit often that have issues with immunity and are advanced in age, hence the caution. The cautious nature tends to run in our family, and I'm not an exception to that. But I don't blame you a bit Steve, for your sentiments. Like you, I've followed all the rules, and have done so up to the point of getting vaccinated. I hope the occasional effects of long Covid for you are gradually decreasing and becoming more infrequent. I can't imagine losing taste and smell for a month, and going through what you did.
I really don't like having to pay the consequences of those who've not and are currently not making responsible choices. I still think the lion's share of the blame should go to anti-vaxxers and Covid truthers who've spread lies about Covid-19 and the vaccines for months now. I think some of them deserve to be beaten with a 2 by 4, as the consequences of their actions have contributed to governments erring on the side of caution.
With all due respect with everything you went through Steve, the issue isn't wearing a mask, it's getting vaccinated. The mask was always a stop-gap to finding the solution. I know people that had it and lived, i know people that got it and died; nobody should have to go through that. Sadly countless did and even more sadly countless will continue to suffer and in some cases die.
We couldn't stop it from coming here, we can stop it from spreading. There-in is the tragedy. We were headed to reaching herd immunity by right about this time (August 1), and then the jackasses started braying all the nonsense and drivel that made it more difficult. It's why i took the time to grab a handful of quotes yesterday; there's hundreds, maybe thousands of them out there.
I just listened to William Kristol and Johnathan V Last on their "secret podcast" for subscribers and they have it dead bang right. It's time to go after the charlatans that are preaching the bullshit. Sorry, not a nice way to say it. We are so close to being there and frankly the businesses and federal government mandates for the shots will help immensely. It will provide cover for those afraid of peer pressure.
There's always going to the be the fringe, those who simply refuse. I saw an interview with a man deathly sick in the hospital, as were several family members and when asked why they didn't get vaccinated, he replied, "we're republican's." Really? Every one deserves better than for an answer.
Let me repeat, the fight isn't over masks, it's about vaccinations and herd immunity. Everything else is minutia. No one wants to go back to where we were; no one. The path forward is simple; get vaccinated. Then we all get our freedom back, then we all get to return to normal. Until then we'll argue over the minutia and more will die and be in hospitals suffering needlessly.
The numbers grow worse daily; that's the reality of where we are. Unless and until we shut up the loudmouths telling us we don't need to be vaccinated nothing will change. Masks won't fix any of that. After all you've been through, you know that better than anyone.
I totally agree with you on everything. There's just one small problem. If everyone doesn't mask then no one will. And the longer this virus is out there the more likely it is that the virus will find a way around the vaccine. And just in case you don't realize this, the virus does not care about what you think you've earned. If it can it will find a way to infect you again. It will find a way to infect your family. Your friends, everyone you know.
I am confident my democratic governor will do what is required when delta makes its way up here. It's just a matter of what you southerners will have to endure before you say enough is enough.