Masks Mandates — why are people against them?
Many school districts, and even some states, are having intense and sometimes violent disagreements about mask mandates. The people who are against the mask mandates, according to polls, are in the minority.
An overwhelming 72%-28% of those surveyed by USA TODAY and Ipsos called mask mandates “a matter of health and safety,” not an infringement on personal liberty. USA TODAY August 22, 2021
They are, however, a very loud and disruptive group. For this reason, I decided to listen to them to figure out why they are so upset about mask mandates.
To do so, I found news reports on the situation, some of which were YouTube videos. I watched or read CNN, FOX News, CNBC, and some local Florida stations and then read the comments. I copied 72 comments against the mask mandate into a spreadsheet. Reading through the comments, I identified five major themes.
Government Propaganda — These 29 comments discussed how the government is lying about the seriousness of the illness, people masking or getting vaccinated are sheep, Dr. Fauci is untrustworthy, the teacher’s unions are working with the CDC to promote mask wearing, wearing masks is communist or fascist, or the Democratic party is lying to people.
The people saying wear masks have all been busted many times in large groups not wearing masks. Wake up sheep without you being sheep they have nothing.
Democrats are always asking themselves, “What would Hitler do?” If Hitler wouldn’t do it, they don’t like it.
Personal/Parental Choice — These 20 comments demanded that each person be able to make the choice for themselves or stated that it should be up to parents not others whether their children wear a mask.
Whether someone should wear a mask or not is a completely different issue than whether someone should be forced to wear a mask. It’s the difference between freedom, and tyranny.
It should be up to the parents cuz what about the kids who have breathing problems?
My science says otherwise — These 18 comments discussed the scientific evidence against using masks, showing that masks don’t slow the spread of the disease, or showing that the disease is not what we think it is.
Masks literally do nothing, it says it right on the box. covid droplets are 60m, masks protect down to 80m, passes right through.
Masks and lockdowns only increase suicides.
Kids don’t die — These 7 comments stated that kids are not dying from the disease. Some even listed the number of deaths of children as evidence.
Covid is a scam. The CDC’s own website says 361 kids ages 0–17 have died of Covid over the last 19 months. We know that 477 kids ages 0–17 died of the flu in the 2018–2019 flu season. More than Covid, in half the time. And, those 361 ALL had a serious underlying health issues. Healthy kids are at no risk from Covid. Masks on kids, constant testing, and forced vaccinations are Marxist Democrat control tools and child abuse. The science and data is clear.
Masks are bad for kids — These 7 comments discussed how masks are bad for kids. A few stated specifically that kids need to be able to read facial expressions as they learn, and masks prevent that.
Masking children will be devastating in the long run. Already the children can’t focus well, fatigued and it’s like a petri dish on their face.
The above is a sampling of the reasons people are giving for being against the mask mandates. Some comments covered more than one category and were counted in both. Some of the reasons appear more rational and understandable than others. Some made me think more seriously about face shields and other ways to stay safer without hiding our faces. Others were harder to understand.
Side note: I admit, the reference to Hitler made me curious about whether he wore a mask during the 1918–1920 Flu pandemic. This lead me to this report on Germany: Pandemics Change Cities: Municipal Spending and Voter Extremism in Germany, 1918–1933. It not only documents that places hit harder by the flu were more likely to vote for the Nazis, but that they were less likely to vote for communists. As I read through the comments against mask mandates, I found these two political philosophies were often used interchangeably, despite their stark differences (Jordan Klepper also attempted to disambiguate them)
This paper documents several interesting and novel findings. First, areas which experienced a greater relative population decline due to the spread of influenza spend less, per-capita, on their inhabitants in the following decade. This holds especially for spending on amenities more likely to be consumed by the young, for example school funding.1 Second, influenza deaths of 1918 are correlated with an increase in the share of votes won by right-wing extremists, such as the National Socialist Workers Party (the Nazi Party), in the crucial elections of 1932 and 1933.
I’m not yet sure what this report means for the future of American politics, but it is an interesting read.
References:
Comments came from these media links:
Watched Wednesday, August 25, 2021
CNBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmaFffsfk-Q 13 Comments
WPLG a local Miami station: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo53Ru-Kos8 12 Comments
CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5HFqlPKDR8&t=362s 19 comments
Watched/Read Tuesday, August 24, 2021
CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmtfFAqUwtI&t=459s 8 comments
Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/desantis-abbott-school-mask-foreign-countries 17 comments
Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/missouri-eric-schmitt-lawsuit-schools-mask-mandates-children 3 comments
