I just came over from a different extremely progressice forum where loud users are VERY into masks, still. I’d say the people most heavily identified with masks now are almost exclusively a very small group of very left people. There’s probably another group that’s just very cautious/anxious about health, but not particularly ideological. They just wear their masks in Safeway but don’t otherwise think about it.

I wear a mask even when I’m alone in the car. It doesn’t bother me to wear it, and it’s more of a hassle to keep taking it off and on. So I just leave it on.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:What I don’t understand is people wearing masks on trails with no one anywhere near them. Just yesterday I saw a lady walking on a trail midday. Alone.

Completely wide open area, outdoors.

What is the point of this?

Sounds like it's something you should have asked her while you had the chance, instead of manufacturing insinuations from your own paranoia. I'm sorry people wearing masks is causing your brain to melt down.

Ok, next time I see you out on the trail, I’ll say hello.

But you won't ask why I'm wearing a mask? If my mask wearing irritates you so much, seems like it would help to discuss it. I guess you're not really interested in solving problems when it's more fun to gossip about it with your MAGA bros on the internet.

Lol. If I’m out on a trail, I’m running. Not worried about your mask.

There must be something that sticks in your subconscious, because when you're off the trail, and on the internet, of all the things to talk and think about, you're talking and thinking about my mask, and how it doesn't make any sense to you. It seems like my harmless mask makes you uncomfortable, and you don't realize it, or are too proud to admit it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don’t understand is people wearing masks on trails with no one anywhere near them. Just yesterday I saw a lady walking on a trail midday. Alone.

Completely wide open area, outdoors.

What is the point of this?

Sounds like it's something you should have asked her while you had the chance, instead of manufacturing insinuations from your own paranoia. I'm sorry people wearing masks is causing your brain to melt down.

Ok, next time I see you out on the trail, I’ll say hello.

But you won't ask why I'm wearing a mask? If my mask wearing irritates you so much, seems like it would help to discuss it. I guess you're not really interested in solving problems when it's more fun to gossip about it with your MAGA bros on the internet.

Lol. If I’m out on a trail, I’m running. Not worried about your mask.

Anonymous wrote:Right now, I assume anyone wearing a mask tested positive and is still in the 10 day window.

Or someone in their family tested positive and since they are in close contact they are being cautious since they don't want to transmit anything. Or their office mate just tested positive. Or they were at an indoor get together with friends and several people tested positive. Or they shared a ride with someone who tested positive the next day. Or they just got off a long plane ride and know it's likely someone on the plane was positive and might have passed it on to them. Or they are going on vacation soon and don't want to catch it beforehand. Or they are immunocompromised or live with someone who is immunocompromised.

Lots of reasons to wear a mask that seem to escape your imagination.

p.s. one of the above scenarios describes my reason for wearing a mask. Another describes a friend who was wearing a mask the other day.

Anonymous wrote:^ I am now in my 40s. Masks for me are normal when there is an airborne viral risk. I don't think I have anything to say to people who still whine about masks.

+1. Another Asian here. I still wear my mask around people who are not my family. I don't know why that should bother anyone.

Anonymous wrote:I have a 35 year old friend who wears a mask because she has breast cancer. She lives in a "red" area and has been heckled.

I wear a mask because I have an autoimmune disease.

Just because republicans made mask wearing political, doesn't mean anything about people who are wearing masks right now.

I wear a mask and live in a red area. I've never been heckled or questioned about it.

^ I am now in my 40s. Masks for me are normal when there is an airborne viral risk. I don't think I have anything to say to people who still whine about masks.

I'm Asian. Some of us are pretty conservative. But we wear masks indoors during airborne disease surges, because we're not stupid. This has been happening in Asia for decades. During flu season, people wear masks on public transport, in crowded situation indoors, etc. When I was a kid in Tokyo, I got myself a Hello Kitty face mask (approved by the requisite health agency), and thought myself very "in".

This is "duh" territory. It took a pandemic for the West to realize it had an easy way to protect itself, but for some reason, some people still don't want to believe it.

Anonymous wrote:What I don’t understand is people wearing masks on trails with no one anywhere near them. Just yesterday I saw a lady walking on a trail midday. Alone.

Completely wide open area, outdoors.

What is the point of this?

Allergies. Masks have been a godsend for some of us.

Anonymous wrote:What I don’t understand is people wearing masks on trails with no one anywhere near them. Just yesterday I saw a lady walking on a trail midday. Alone.

Completely wide open area, outdoors.

What is the point of this?

I know a couple people with severe outdoor allergies who now routinely mask outdoors (eg, baseball games). It is t about COVID or politics at all.

FWIW so many of my fellow liberals were traveling during pandemic. It was sickening. Yet they spewed the narrative about all the conservatives/ GOPsrs were traveling and socializing. Many of these friends were doing their usual family reunions / summer gatherings while criticizing the other side.

I take very little stock in the politics of masks more so now than before.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right now, I assume anyone wearing a mask tested positive and is still in the 10 day window.

Whatever works for you to protect your psyche from those menacing masks!

What? I'm fine with masks. But tons of people have COVID right now, so it's safe to assume this.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm a republican and I wear a mask when I am out and about in stores because I have older in-laws at home. Once they travel back to the old country, I won't be wearing a mask anymore.

Are you wearing N95? Because surgical - cloth offers little to no protection

Indeed, a mix of N95 and KN95s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don’t understand is people wearing masks on trails with no one anywhere near them. Just yesterday I saw a lady walking on a trail midday. Alone.

Completely wide open area, outdoors.

What is the point of this?

Sounds like it's something you should have asked her while you had the chance, instead of manufacturing insinuations from your own paranoia. I'm sorry people wearing masks is causing your brain to melt down.

Ok, next time I see you out on the trail, I’ll say hello.

But you won't ask why I'm wearing a mask? If my mask wearing irritates you so much, seems like it would help to discuss it. I guess you're not really interested in solving problems when it's more fun to gossip about it with your MAGA bros on the internet.

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Anonymous wrote:If I see a middle aged person wearing a mask now, they are a liberal and want you to know it. If they are old, I figure they may just be hedging their bets but also probably liberal. When I see a young person— like 10-20, often with family members not wearing masks I assume they actually have covid or they got messed up by the covid situation and will need counseling at some point to feel safe.

I’m middle aged and I wear a mask to limit my likelihood of getting Covid or Monkeypox. I’m an ex-liberal, BTW.

This is such a stunning but revealing statement. Monkey pox is basically a sexually transmitted disease most common among men having sex with men. That is a fact. It is not airborne and yet you wear a mask for that. This is evidence that you really don’t understand what masks can do in terms of protection and for what illnesses. And, as another poster said, unless you are using an N95, masks don’t help. But you can wear and N95 and if you are a man having sex with another man and you don’t know each other, that mask isn’t going to help you. Ignorance on display!

I’m afraid you are revealing your ignorance. Monkeypox is, among other modes of transmission, airborne. The CDC and WHO used to say so on this their websites, but that was removed from their websites this past spring. Monkeypox is a massive DNA virus which makes it less mobile in the air than Covid, but respiratory transmission is a thing.

BTW, it was never an STD/STI. But, being close enough to someone to have sex with them will make airborne transmission much easier. Have sex with someone who has influenza and you can get the flu, but still we wouldn’t call influenza an STD/STI.

Still masked and glad to tell all why that is.

This is wrong. Reports now indicate that almost all cases involve rash, anogenital lesions, and mucosal lesions. It is most definitely a STD.

Then how have peoples' pets and children contacted it? Are you accusing them of bestiality?

This is so important. That there’s been a concerted narrative to cast it as sexually transmitted will harm so many, including children.

There’s some question as to why there are many infections among the MSM population. First, many of them already have HIV, which would render them immunocompromised and more vulnerable. Second, if these anonymous networks have been active there’s a pretty good chance that also have had Covid, which would also produce weakened immune systems. And sex would allow for transmission via the airborne or skin contact routes.

Nothing says sex is required, hence it’s not a STD/STI.