I’m (hopefully) entering a new org soon. Only a few comrades there mask. At my workplace, or anywhere else really, nobody masks. The only people I see mask are like goldfish, and I only see them occasionally in public transit. It’s disheartening by the day to see Covid trivialized, and AES like even China not care anymore, in spite of their good policies beforehand.
Just makes me feel like I cannot relate to people anymore, they all look at me like I’m supremely weird for masking, so it’s even harder to convince people of anything politically, especially when I’m discriminated all the time and receive verbal abuse for masking. I really dont get how to talk to people when they wont understand the concept of masking to protect themselves/others and it makes me feel stuck politically, to the point I feel I have a one sided view of many social issues, through the POV of Covid consciousness and masking, and I dont see how a movement can be built if no one acknowledges this. I feel like I’ve become more disconnected from everyone, including comrades, especially them, because they wont listen or want to mask in the first place, and I dont know what to do. I use an N95 every day when going outside, and so does my partner. We dont eat out, etc. I get the fact many wont do this choice to sacrifice their lifestyle or whatever… but :(
I remember before masking I was taken seriously, now it’s impeding me in all my life’s aspects just cause we live in an extremely ableist society. It’s hard and alienating from others, and no one irl seemingly understands. It’s very hard to see how to build a mass movement in these conditions, or to even socialize with others (and I’m very sociable!) when you’re instantly labeled as weird. I’m so dissapointed in people sometimes I give up on interacting because of this.
Even among comrades, the moment I mention masking, everyone is suddenly awkward and tries to move on. I’m tired to act like it’s a secret or such
I wish things were different. I wish I could connect with people again. And that comrades would take this seriously, because I feel alienated even from those I share the most with, and its painful. I dont want to create a struggle session or whatever, just wanted to feel heard, I hope most people here mask anyways. It’s bad enough for my mental healtg to give up on all social stuff cause of masking, and other activities like swimming, it’s just tough. Thanks for reading
I agree with masking although I don’t really understand the antipathy toward people not masking at this stage when few do. At this point it feels like trying to solve climate change by separating and recycling plastic from my trash. It does help, but the most I can do is asymptotically approach equivalence with me not existing at all or being a complete shut-in. I became vegan once I internalized the harm I participated in toward animals… and still, my efforts can at most be equivalent to me taking up zero space. The problem is still there even if I individually do everything right.
Most people collectively, and not voluntarily, gave up on slowing covid once the governments of the world decided it was over… because losing one’s job and starving is a more concrete threat than covid for a lot of people… or at least that is how they perceive it. It’s not fair and it is an example of how society leaves behind the disabled. Yet… I don’t feel anger toward random individuals who are more or less just scraping by. The problem is bigger than a single person, it’s not about the relative difficulty of wearing a mask (it’s not that hard) it’s about the perceived futility of it all.
Practically speaking, fighting for cheap or free vaccines seems more effective than convincing each individual to mask. I don’t foresee generalized masking happening again unless a new variant significantly increases mortality rates.
Practically speaking, fighting for cheap or free vaccines seems more effective than convincing each individual to mask.
The vaccines dont stop you from getting covid, just make the symptoms slightly less worse and give you a slightly lower chance of getting long covid. If anything, the fact that people go “well i’m vaxxed, i dont need a mask” makes me think fighting for free vaccines is less effective than fighting for free masks in terms of reducing damage from covid.
I agree with masking although I don’t really understand the antipathy toward people not masking at this stage when few do.
You dont understand why people might be upset at others for putting themselves and the people they love at risk of death or permanent chronic illness, leading them to want to vent in literally one of the few places in many of our lives that at least claims to take this seriously?
It does help, but the most I can do is asymptotically approach equivalence with me not existing at all or being a complete shut-in.
The most you could do is wear a mask (reducing the threat of illness and death to people around you) and publically support masking and oppose antimasking. Idk why “being a complete shut in” is mentioned; the cause of covid safety isnt advanced any more by staying shut in than environmentalism is addressed by not going to protests bc it increases ones carbon footprint.
The problem is still there even if I individually do everything right.
Thats how systemic problems work yeah. The same is true of capitalism or climate change; doesnt mean we get the luxury of giving up
Most people collectively, and not voluntarily, gave up on slowing covid once the governments of the world decided it was over because losing one’s job and starving is a more concrete threat than covid for a lot of people… or at least that is how they perceive it.
I dont doubt some people were fired for continuing to mask, but afaik in the vast majority of cases it has been cowardice and laziness. My mother (retired now thankfully) dealt with verbal and physical abuse at her (minimum wage! And we still bought masks!) workplace for years, constant sarcastic remarks by her bosses. It took a week or two of “pandemic is over” (before the harassment even started!) for literally all her coworkers (many of whom knew she was immunocompromised) to stop masking. There was no threats of unemployment in 2021, and still very little social pressure. What can this be called if not cowardice and laziness?
I don’t foresee generalized masking happening again unless a new variant significantly increases mortality rates.
Antimasking won without a change in mortality or disability rates; masking wont win again unless people struggle for it. Unfortunately, even many leftists prefer brunch to disabled lives
Vaccines tend to reduce viral load if/when you do get infected, thus reducing further transmission. That’s why everyone should be vaxxed even if they catch it anyway. The holistic approach would of course be best, mask + vax + reducing physical proximity.
I disagree that the most that we can do is mask. That’s why I mentioned veganism and environmentalism; those are other examples of individual efforts being at most a mitigating factor, not really a solution per se, not on its own as a “grassroots” trend. It requires management from the top down, at all layers of society, to actually mean anything. Radical action against covid would mean things like legal protection for remote work, mandatory and unlimited paid sick time for covid, stricter indoor ventilation regulations, free vaccines, free masks, etc. Tbqh, sitting in a poorly ventilated cube farm with 30 other coworkers for 40 hours a week — mask or not, if a coworker has covid, I’m catching it too. That’s what I mean about employment. Fulltime in-office is the norm again, and yes they will fire you if you don’t comply. That is way more impactful than any individual choice to mask.
My purpose is not to justify not wearing a mask but to explain my understanding why the large majority of people stopped.
Tbqh, sitting in a poorly ventilated cube farm with 30 other coworkers for 40 hours a week — mask or not, if a coworker has covid, I’m catching it too.
Ive had almost ten coworkers in my less than 50 person department in and out with covid last week and havent gotten sick because I mask and get my booster. This is just covid liberalism
Edit: and more have symptoms and are still coming into work or could be asymptomatic
You know what else reduces viral load? That’s right, wearing a mask
Yes
I never said the most we can do is individually mask, i explicitly said at the end we must struggle for to make masking society wide instead. And societywide, masking had the biggest impact on reducing deaths. You seem to he doing the opposite of struggling for a society wide hollistic solution by spreading antimasking rhetoric, justifying antimaskers’ decisions, and framing those advocating struggling for masking as individualists who dont have real jobs
Tbqh, sitting in a poorly ventilated cube farm with 30 other coworkers for 40 hours a week — mask or not, if a coworker has covid, I’m catching it too
I’m in schools all day, havent got covid in years despite the hacking coughs of my classmates and profs. One of my neighbours teaches hundreds of students a day in a poorly ventilated educational institution where he’s the only masker. He hasnt gotten covid since 21/22. Another has the same job, but doesnt mask, he’s constantly sick. Neither of them have ever been threatened with being fired for masking, neither was my min wage mother or any of her coworkers, but only my mother kept masking.
You are claiming to not be justifying not wearing a mask, but that’s exactly what you’re doing with your misinformation: you are quite literally justifying peoples choice not to wear a mask. You mention reduced viral loads wrt vaccines, but ignore the (much larger!) reduction from wearing a mask. And in your radical action against covid, you mention providing free masks, but dont mention restoring mask mandates
You claim to just be explaining why, their perspective, etc, but you ignore the most reasonable explanations: ableism, complacency, bourgeois propaganda, selfishness to explain (falsely) if they masked theyd be sick anyway and maybe fired so there’s no point.
Tbqh, sitting in a poorly ventilated cube farm with 30 other coworkers for 40 hours a week — mask or not, if a coworker has covid, I’m catching it too. That’s what I mean about employment. Fulltime in-office is the norm again, and yes they will fire you if you don’t comply. That is way more impactful than any individual choice to mask.
My purpose is not to justify not wearing a mask but to explain my understanding why the large majority of people stopped.
In the preceding paragraph you seem to be saying those are actually your own views, but then you say youre just explaining your understanding of why most people stopped? Unless the whole thing is “in character” from an antimaskers perspective
You mention reduced viral loads wrt vaccines, but ignore the (much larger!) reduction from wearing a mask.
I’m not ignoring masks. I only mentioned that about vaccines to correct what you said, that vaccines only make you feel less bad when you get sick.
you mention providing free masks, but dont mention restoring mask mandates
I guess that was implied in “etc” but technically you are correct that I did not list that.
What you call “anti-mask rhetoric” is just me describing what is happening around me. I caught covid twice through mask + vaccination. During the initial lockdown, I lived in an area where even with a mandate people wore their masks incorrectly and didn’t get vaccinated. That’s the situation we are in now, and I’m kinda over being mad at individuals about it when our leaders are piling on the reasons not to do these things
The effects of reduced viral loads are the slightly less severe covid and slightly lowered chances of long covid that i mentioned. Why are you framing an explanation of the science behind what i’ve already said as a correction?
You focus on these voluntary measures and put the actual important ones in the etc bc your analysis frames state-capitals coercion as having stopped people from masking. In reality the reverse is true: the majority of liberal subjects (many leftists included) trust liberal propaganda implicitly and value their ability to eat brunch in comfort over disabled lives. State coercion was in fact the only thing that forced them to do otherwise.
During the initial lockdown, I lived in an area where even with a mandate people wore their masks incorrectly and didn’t get vaccinated. That’s the situation we are in now, and I’m kinda over being mad at individuals about it when our leaders are piling on the reasons not to do these things
I live in an area where, at the height of the lockdown, truckers launched a massive sustained protest campaign and forced the government to end the mask mandate; those jackasses werent wearing their masks at all never mind covering their noses.
I’m glad you’re able to be so zen about it, but i cant forgive these antimaskers (and all whove jumped on their bandwagon). Systemic factors explain, not justify. Coming into a venting thread to chastise people for not turning the other cheek to people who have harmed them and make excuses for their behaviour is shitty behaviour.
I cant forget my mother coming home with a massive head injury, coming home crying every day for weeks after being screamed at by truckers twice her size, or my brother sobbing for weeks bc his only friend stopped being his friend bc he wouldnt stop masking. I understand the pressures antimaskers face: i just think theyre lazy cowards for caving to those pressure and actively ableist when they promote the same behaviours in others. Glad youre able to forgive and forget, but unfortunately best i can do is act civil for organising work
I agree. We still wear masks when we go to places where a lot of people are crammed together indoors like grocery stores, but it does feel pretty futile when you’re the only one ever wearing a mask. It feels like a safety blanket now instead of actual protection, even though it probably HAS helped prevent me from getting sick many times. It feels so weird though when everyone everywhere else is just living their lives without a thought about masking.
That said, my coworker just got covid last week. He said it is pretty mild and he took a 1/2 day off work to just chill and take a nap, then he felt fine afterward. I know that’s anecdotal and we still don’t know what exactly the long-term effects of it are going to be, but it just adds to my questioning of why I keep masking.
Hi there, this is demifriend’s wife using her account to post. I used to have a lemmy account but the two I had do not exist exist anymore; that was mononoke@lemmy.sdf.net, and before that, I was Ivysaur here. One of the lasting impacts I seem to have had was helping found the disabled community on here in an effort to help combat this exact sort of emerging ableism I see creeping from the woodwork everywhere. I am proud to see it still exists and has activity. Most of my posts from both accounts are still around if you search me here, and a lot of them were about covid and the left’s infuriating apathy toward it. What made me leave this place and largely stop interacting with most radical spaces online and IRL is exactly this: everything you describe. I could have written the entire thing verbatim. I have felt all of this, every day, for the last seven years. I have nothing else to add. I hear you loud and clear, and I am so thankful you are here. I hope you stay and be a voice of reason among the irrational.
Beatrice Adler-Bolton of Health Communism and Death Panel fame caught a lot of undeserved flak from so-called leftists recently for giving a panel about disability justice in the movement at a socialist conference, and I believe a large part of it was because she was still wearing a mask like she has been since the beginning of the pandemic. Frankly if this is what everyone’s communism is then we are lost. “Fix your hearts or die”—and we have chosen death. I am ultimately resigned to survival anymore; call me a coward, but I tried longer and harder more than any of my accusers ever did, or will. Organizations won’t listen, comrades won’t listen, friends won’t listen. I listen, though, and I know who’s going to be prepared for when everything goes down; it’s not the ‘a fascist lifted today’ polemic-spewing “socialists” and their ilk pushing their dreaded, inevitable future wrapped in the mangled bodies of their disabled comrades underfoot, out of sight and out of mind until the music stops and they will find themselves at last lacking any chairs. Their body is keeping the score. I have no hope that things will get better anymore, personally, but one thing is always for certain: change. This will change too, eventually. I see every day how unsustainable it all is even if everyone else does not, willfully or otherwise. The damage has already been done, unfortunately, and I think we will be living with this for the rest of our lives. I’m sorry I don’t have anything better to say. Some of us are out there still. The work must happen one way or another. Thank you for sharing, and for listening. As my favorite podcast always says by the end, stay alive another week.
Beatrice Adler-Bolton of Health Communism and Death Panel fame caught a lot of undeserved flak from so-called leftists
I was thinking of this too. A lot of “socialists” exposed their whole ass by jumping on the bandwagon, mocking their mask usage at that event, and completely missing the point of what those panel members were even saying. Those two speakers were cooking imo and the fact that so many radically online commentators jumped on it to say “hurrrr so you’re saying not being fat is fascist???” - shows who’s a crypto-eugenic opportunist.
Hi Ivysaur! FIY I’ve always liked your posts while you were here, thanks for being such a staunch masker and principled person, hope you’re doing as well as you can in these conditions!
Thanks for your kind words and support, it’s encouraging to see this :3 I’ve kept trying to persuade everyone to mask, and irl I’ve only managed with my partner and one family member, but yea it’s hard… I’d expect to have more success with leftists lol
O I’ve seen pictures of the panel, but didn’t see exactly what was about, I’m not familiar with Death Panel either.
I’m also trying to survive mostly atp, just tiring to keep going sometimes, but yea the antimaskers dont understand the amount of perseverence and will we have to go through this. My girlfriend got disabled by Covid and it’s always an uphill battle with others around us, telling us to unmask :/
Agreed on their body is keeping the score, I’ve heard multiple cases of people around me “mysteriously” dying in their 30s and 40s for “no reason” like smh
Thank you for your message, it helped a lot, stay safe comrade!
“Leftist” spaces abandoning masking is full-blown liberalism.
In places like the US, masking was not abandoned based on public health grounds: at no point, not even today, has the crisis stopped meeting the criteria for a pandemic and excess mortality is still qualitatively higher.
So what was the timing of ending restrictions based on? Capital and its political class functionaries. We can all remember when restrictions were weakened because Delta put pressure on the feds. And the “end” of the pandemic in liberals’ minds was when Biden declared the emergency over. And then, either simultaneously or very soon after, alleged leftists did the exact same thing. There was no reason for them to do this other than being intensely malleable and subordinate to capitalist propaganda and being big babies no discipline. And I think that does describe most self-labeled socialists in the imperial core. It’s getting better but most treat organizing as a social club and process of self-fulfillment. They don’t read, they don’t self-crit, they don’t subordinate their petty personal gripes to organizational strategy (a serious global pandemic not being a petty gripe), most aren’t even in an org and are not particularly serious about it.
In short I just don’t take 90% of them very seriously and approach organizing with the understanding that even self-labeled communists in the imperial core tend to be breathtakingly ignorant yet extremely confident and willing to share and act on their ignorance. Education is a constant battle even within a communist organization and is arguably the most important one. Never slack on internal organization, on running committees, having reading sessions, lectures, film viewings, and developing lines. It’s work that only we can do, people who haven’t lazily rolled over when Joe Biden, capital’s lapdog, passed on the message.
Unfortunately this is not unique to COVID-19. COVID-19 is just an objective and recent case. We have to do the exact same Ed work on nearly every relevant topic and develop strategic organizing cadre as a top priority and it will always be frustrating in the sense that all of these self-labeled leftists should already know better and at least shut up when they haven’t investigated. But really, tale as old as socialist organizing.
If it’s any consolation the process of doing this internal organizing will generate a group of people you do respect, appreciate, and feel appreciated by. Both because they’ll just reveal themselves and because you will actually create them via cadre development.
My understanding was that the “emergency over” wasn’t about risk of getting covid, but risk of overwhelming hospitals. At first they didn’t know how it spread and were setting up tents as emergency wards with no meds and insufficient equipment. Once there were treatments and most everyone had been exposed, the crisis point was over and covid was relegated to something like the flu’s status: deadly for some, but oh well. Yes it was and is callous indifference. So were all the individuals who acted like going mask-less was a risk they were willing to take for themselves without seeming to understand that it was a greater risk for everyone around them. At this point, though, I have some understanding that most social people care intensely about seeing faces and would rather risk temporary illness than reduce human contact… despite the fact that the illness may not be temporary. What can I say? Humans are bad at assessing risk.
My understanding was that the “emergency over” wasn’t about risk of getting covid, but risk of overwhelming hospitals.
The opposite would be much more likely: drop precautions, rates shoot up, more people in hospitals.
“Emergency over” was about capital pulling all of its various strings so that there could be a return to certain forms of profit-seeking and bourgeois control over labor. “Emergency over” meant no more lockdowns (labor scarcer and at a premium, land use disrupted). It meant commercial real estate could again speculate like it always does and try to get renters and jack up rents rather than watch their “investments” go poof (this was a big one, it is the main reason why office workers were hen forced to return to the office). It meant pulling the plug on periodic basic guaranteed income payouts and services to support people during lockdowns / the emergency (we then saw a new cycle of primitive accumulation as people were again made poorer and more precarious). Millions of petty bourgeois tyrants all demanding to exploit again (despite being paid to not do so via bailouts and loan forgiveness) and real estate.
At first they didn’t know how it spread and were setting up tents as emergency wards with no meds and insufficient equipment.
Some places yes. I mean Sweden almost immediately attempted “herd immunity” and pretended like the virus only negatively impacted the asiatic hordes or something.
Once there were treatments and most everyone had been exposed, the crisis point was over and covid was relegated to something like the flu’s status: deadly for some, but oh well.
This is actually just a liberal propaganda narrative. It is part of normalization of a pandemic whose response was aborted early by capital. Vaccination rates plummeted, the plug was pulled on propping up pharma companies to make new ones every 6 months and ensure people could actually get vaccinated. As I said originally, excess mortality is still way higher, it is not just “some” people it is more than the flu kills and it is not seasonal. Hospitals were permanently changed and travel nurses normalized, moving where there was greater need in a petty boirgeois-ification of what would otherwise be unionizable work. “Most everyone had been exposed” means nothing when immunity wears off every 6 months, as again, we are still in the middle of the pandemic, there is no herd immunity. The old people just die off and young people get disabled and immune damaged, but because cause isn’t obvious it only appears as statistics and a pile of immunological studies that get ignored, for political reasons, by top brass health officials.
Yes it was and is callous indifference.
I disagree. It is malleability, a subservience to bourgeois propaganda. Provide the narrative, normalize, and in the forefront discipline labor to force a form of obedience. If everyone has to go to the office, everyone has to be exposed. If a manager says masks are optional, you will get sick with what they have eventually. If a manager says masks must be removed in order to do your job - like sales - you must obey or lose your job. Nothing to protect you, “emergency over”. It is a mass of people susceptible to bourgeois propaganda and coercion then simply accepting the false rationalizations of capital’s propagandists, including the people who claim to be explicitly against this and capable of dismantling it. The same people will cry when they see someone sick and die, when they see heir neighbors tormented by cops, when their friends become homeless through precarity created by marginalization. Their capacity to empathize is not broken, merely short-circuited via conditioning to accept bourgeois narratives and rationalizations for their predicament.
So were all the individuals who acted like going mask-less was a risk they were willing to take for themselves without seeming to understand that it was a greater risk for everyone around them.
Note the timing on this. In the US, prior to Biden claiming the emergency was over, those people were considered assholes by most liberals. Almost overnight it was entirely normalized and various anti- masker arguments were now acceptable to liberals. Oh now the masks are uncomfortable, they look weird, they don’t work very well, it’s hard to talk in them, poor babies. And again, alleged “leftists” followed suit. Ask yourself what had actually changed, materially, re: public health and the pandemic, at that moment. Were waves over? Vaccines working for over a year? Vaccination rates extremely high? Excess mortality rates “normal”? Or did a bourgeois party politician simply declare it over?l and they fell in line like good citizens?
At this point, though, I have some understanding that most social people care intensely about seeing faces and would rather risk temporary illness than reduce human contact… despite the fact that the illness may not be temporary. What can I say? Humans are bad at assessing risk.
Do you believe this behavioral sea change came from below? People just wanted to be coughing in each others’ faces at work? Or that the desire to drop $60 at a restaurant to hang out with people led to a groundswell demanding an end to lockdowns and precautions?
What actually happened was a bourgeois politician giving permission to stop and specious rationalizations for why to do so, all at the urging of capital. This is not a human nature debate. And the turn to do so is a very old form of bourgeois propaganda.
Hospitals were permanently changed and travel nurses normalized, moving where there was greater need in a petty boirgeois-ification of what would otherwise be unionizable work.
That is the part angers me the most, and then extra angry when I found out nurses deemed to need the money more were offered less pay for the same shifts.
I disagree. It is malleability, a subservience to bourgeois propaganda. Provide the narrative, normalize, and in the forefront discipline labor to force a form of obedience.
I concede. Yours is a better formed description and surely more accurate.
Do you believe this behavioral sea change came from below? People just wanted to be coughing in each others’ faces at work?
No, I think people have always liked seeing faces. I think people who grew up kissing cheeks as a greeting kept doing it until a younger generation insisted on air kisses (this wasn’t much of a U.S. thing except in certain immigrant families keeping it alive at family gatherings). I remember the generation that would not buckle their seat belts until it was criminalized because that’s how they grew up (similar story for drunk driving). If we’d gotten rid of seat belt laws, I expect that now-old generation would have stopped belting up just like the current generations stopped masking up.
For covid, I expect the vast majority of people over 30ish will never see masks as proper etiquette because they grew up with people coughing and spreading germs at work. I suspect U.S. people who started working in the 1990s or earlier think it better to go to work sick and infect everyone than to stay home because it showed The Boss they are dedicated and they don’t know how to unlearn that.
I also think people have always been bad at risk assessment. If we were better at it, lotteries and casinos couldn’t exist because people would see it as throwing money away despite the thrill of an intermittent reward system. Years back, I read studies showing how we get much better at seeing risk after our teen years, but stop caring as much after… I think it was entering our 60s or so – I’ve forgotten when that starts.
All that said, I do agree that moneyed interests pushed HARD for an end to the lock downs despite on-going risk and I like your framing of it better than mine. Thank you for the well described perspective!
My understanding was that the “emergency over” wasn’t about risk of getting covid, but risk of overwhelming hospitals.
Not sure what its like where you are, but where I live the “temporary” overcapacity measures adopted by hospitals were quietly made permanent. Its become nearly impossible to get treatment in reasonable time; an old guy literally died of a heart attack in the hospital lobby a few months back bc the hospitals are still so overwhelmed
Oooh, that reminds me of a lesson on using ‘metrics’. The story was about the British healthcare system measuring how long people were left in the waiting room, and hospitals got in some sort of trouble if it was too long, soooo hospitals began improving the wait times yet overall care stats remained the same. It turned out this was because the act of measuring the wait time lead to staff getting pressured to be faster without more getting more people or resources, so staff learned to quickly move patients out of the waiting room – done! – only to have them wait unseen in exam rooms or even on gurneys in the halls.
So here we are again adjusting to the new normal.
It’s wild to me how I got asked in a Hospital why am I masking… Yea, agreed with people had no reason to unmask, everyone just followed Biden, and just wanted to instantly forget what we’ve been through (another thing I’m told, that I “remind people of the pandemic”). The part you wrote about education is on point and inspirational, thank you.
Most annoying shit is when they invite me to go eating or drinking, or offer me food or drinks at meeting. Fuck off!
But yeah I agree. I’m lucky in that I’m not very sociable so i’m generally happy sitting at home reading and skipping parties. For more socially inclined people like you (or my brother) i cant imagine how rough it is.
Folks have talked about how easy it is to mask so i wont repeat that except to say if i see one more “leftist” call masking “bourgeois” i will shoot them and make their skin into masks. My mum makes min wage and was our only breadwinner and we never stopped masking!
Also ive lost a lotta respect for peoples commitment/bravery. I’m lucky enough (ciswhitedude privilege) to have escaped much verbal or physical abuse for masking, but my mother spent years being screamed at by truckers in her work place and was physically assaulted repeatedly (literally kicked in the head once as she was checking gas levels). I cant rly see antimaskers as anything but lazy cowards.
I also wanna add: it has started really pissing me off when people (especially comrades) get sick and cant make it to organising events. I havent been sick in years so it’s rly started feeling more like antimaskers own fault for being sick to me. We dont have many people in my org, so stuff keeps coming to a standstill bc the antimaskers keep getting sick and its very frustrating.
I’ve saved a lot of money not going out to restaurants (tbh I’m paid minimum wage, couldn’t afford that anyways.) I also like reading, I’m mostly ambivalent, I like socialization but also don’t mind reading for a whole week lol. You and your mom are awesome! Yea I know of such similar abuse cases and discrimination, it sucks:(
At least the antimaskers in your org dont come physically to be plaguerats lol
Still masking 100% of the time. At this point, my social life has completely died and I’ve got zero friends left. No one wants to hang out with someone that has to wear a mask when no one else is wearing a mask. Sad but true. You can either own it or let it own you. Show up, mask, tell them this is the way its going to be, and then go from there.
Sadly, most people here do not mask. In fact, most of our leftist cohort do not mask at all.
Thank you comrade
I’ve had a really bad cough for months, that I believe I caught at a hospital appointment when an unmasked woman got unnecessarily close to me and coughed all over me. I’m immunocompromised, and it’s just not going away. I wish hospitals at least would make masks compulsory again.
Not masking is hospitals is horrifying. I know in germany they force mandated N95s last winter… but for the Flu. What a piece of shit, hope you will be fine comrade
Thank you. I’m actually getting quite worried about this cough because it’s been months, but I feel like there’s no point even trying the doctor. It’s almost impossible to get an appointment anyway, they put so many obstacles in the way of actually getting to see a GP now, and if I did manage to see one they never take anything seriously, I mean it took 4 years of begging to get my thyroid cancer diagnosed and 17 years of begging to find out what is wrong with my bladder. They wouldn’t care or do anything about a cough.
My girlfriend got Covid several times, and got disabled by it, in one of the infections she had a very very bad cough for about a year and a half… her lung capacity even now is very damaged, at about 55%. Can relate to doctors being useless, I’m in Ewwrope and I’ve been trying to go to the doctor with a dermatological issue for like 3 years now to no avail, and my girlfriend likely has autoimmune or chronic issues and they keep ignoring her, it’s outrageous.
That sucks. It seems like everywhere, the medical profession is failing patients to the point of ruining their lives. It just seems overwhelming, like I don’t know how this will even be solved.
if people won’t do the most basic thing they’re worthless. putting on a mask is less effort than putting on normal clothes, there’s zero excuse.
Of the same opinion, though most people will throw a fit about their eating out or whatever
I spent a good hour yesterday calling around to get the out of pocket prices for the 2026 Covid vaccines. They’re hovering around $300 this year! Any leftist out there that doesn’t have a medical reason for their maskless face is no comrade of the people. Absolute fucking liberalism.
Thank YOU, comrade, for hanging in there and setting a fucking example for those cowardly libs around you.
I’m an n95 guy myself, but I feel like Stalin wouldn’t fuck around.
For anyone in the US, Costco members can get novavax for $222.
I’ve also heard about this rx discount shit that might be able to help bring the cost down further but the costco rx tech on the phone wasn’t sure about it. I’m in Florida so I didn’t really feel like they gave a shit to begin with.🙃
https://www.goodrx.com/novavax?pharmacyId=31240
I’m still not sure if the prices they list are updated from the 2025 vaccines.
I got the updated moderna vaccine this week for $0 with insurance ! Why is novavax so pricy and out of pocket?
Everything is out of pocket when you don’t have insurance, comrade.
Edit: They’re all hovering around the same prices. Novavax might be $20 more than the mrna stuff. But they’re all up there.
Have you contacted your state or city health department or checked with FQHCs? They typically offer sliding scale fee structures that a pharmacy wouldn’t.
Oh, I see the confusion, I’m typing Florida and you and @bigpharmasutra@hexbear.net are reading “Functional State.” Lol. Our surgeon general is Anti-vaxx and the Health Department brags about not shutting down schools for measle outbreaks, the state health department has this at the top of the Covid page:
There may be cities/counties in the state that provide Covid shots but definitely not the one I’m living in. I’ll definitely look into the FQHCs thing but I don’t have high hopes. I appreciate the thoughts from both of you.
You might have forgotten this delightful tidbit, but I am INTIMATELY familiar with this god awful shithole of a state.
Its been a while but I was able to obtain some vaccines free of charge at the county health district/bureau. Its at least worth checking to see what they’ve got going on up there.
lol, I did forget, but I assure you there’s nothing happening in my county. They do annual kids shots but nothing for adults and definitely not for covid.
Oh shit I didn’t realize you were in Florida. Sorry Comrade.
No worries! Not about this, at least.
I’m sorry :(
No worries.
I’m not in the US. Local bourgeois politicians here are in yet another scandal because “bought too many Covid vaccines and they were a Scam and didnt use them either!” lol, all the doses are from 2021. Thank you too for existing!!
Fuck, yeah that sucks.
Check with your FL dept of health branch. They generally have free or very low cost vaccinations available. Might not be able to be picky with it but its better than shelling out $200+.
Just makes me feel like I cannot relate to people anymore, they all look at me like I’m supremely weird for masking, so it’s even harder to convince people of anything politically, especially when I’m discriminated all the time and receive verbal abuse for masking. I really dont get how to talk to people when they wont understand the concept of masking to protect themselves/others and it makes me feel stuck politically, to the point I feel I have a one sided view of many social issues
A depressing point: The guy who discovered microbes and told people to wash their hands was institutionalized for being crazy years before science caught up to him. Being leftist is really being correct too early.
Another depressing point: Most people conveniently forgot that the flu was practically non-existent when everyone was locked down or masking. Masking saves lives, for far more than just COVID.
I do like to point out when people ask why I’m in a mask that I haven’t tested, and I don’t actually know if I’m contagious or not, and they dont know where I’ve been or who or what I’ve been exposed to, so I’m trying to help them too. It’s intentionally backhanded and probably not helpful, but it’s true and it makes me feel good saying it.
My first chapter vote was repealing the mask rule for organizing. The arguments for repeal were selfish and wee-woo vibe shit in the face of people talking about how the repeal would put them at risk and how they are already dealing with complications. Not a great look for my local, but its cool they held out as long as they did. As the cognitive dissonance about COVID and the general public continues to drag on, the more I find myself being seduced by individualist anarchism. I have to remind constantly myself that I think democratic rule sucks ass, but it’s the best, least bad system we have and I don’t have a better idea.
The only empathy I can muster toward masking apathy, or antagonism, is that everyone is exhausted and burned out for the last 7 years and counting. Nobody talking politics in the US publicly has a good, consistent framework to talk about any of this. Everybody has collective trauma due to COVID that hasn’t been reckoned with.
We need effective vaccines that will actually prevent getting sick and wipe out infectious disease. We need clean air, including HVAC and UV and rapid cycling for any indoor space. The only way we can achieve this is with a class respectful and conscious society not under the thumb of capitalism.
Comrade, you are correct, just too early. You are not alone.
I do like to point out when people ask why I’m in a mask that I haven’t tested, and I don’t actually know if I’m contagious or not, and they dont know where I’ve been or who or what I’ve been exposed to, so I’m trying to help them too. It’s intentionally backhanded and probably not helpful, but it’s true and it makes me feel good saying it.
The only point that works with people here is that I protect a family member, and they relent, if I say I protect myself or them they laugh it off or get aggressive usually.
I’m not in the US and yea it’s an uphill battle. Thanks for writing this, sometimes I even doubt myself
Saw this and fully expected a
but good to see everyone was just clowning on some antimasker. Good posting.
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Yea I logged in earlier and was like “oh no” but then just saw it was that guy lmao
Also hi ash! You recommended to me long time ago some fics like Unjust Depths, way way ago. Good to see you around^^
Also, that vampire interactive fiction game, I forgot its name lol it’s been a while
Hello and hell yeah, Wayhaven!! ✨ Ty though, been back for a month or two at this point, happy to be.
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Around where I’m at I see people masking somewhat regularly on transit and such, almost always people of color or older people, definitely not most riders. A lot of young men in particular I see with masks fairly often but typically ski masks
One funny side-effect of the mask recommendations (and the general attitude) since 2020 is seeing people in balaclavas regularlyYea, I have a similar experience with yours. I dont see that many balaclavas here though, I know they’re popular amongst chuds
read your commentary, in agreement with your sentiment - not sure what else to add on.
(some comment expressing wishing things were also different)
edit: also ahck i got covid attending socials for an indoor palestine soldarity event, this perspective is extremely valid and i can verify your stance
Damn that sucks :L quick recovery!
Forget general society. The majority of people here on Hexbear dot net are plague rats. You can especially tell when people here get hyped about watching Hollywood slop in the Covid death traps called movie theatres.
Whatever. Just mask up, take your shots, and set up CR boxes. The easiest CR box design is just a box fan with a 20x20x4 MERV 13 MPR 1900 filter like this
Depending on how much you are exposed to plague rats in your routine life, masking and vaccines may not be enough.
Read up about ventilation and air quality. You’ll be shocked (or not since you refuse to become a plague rat) at how little plague rat society gives a fuck about air quality. Plague rats will cram themselves like plague-bearing sardines into a small room with no windows and wonder why it “feels stuffy.” (That’s their body’s response to CO2 concentration rising above 1000 ppm, which is when cognitive impairment starts to happen.). Buy a cheap CO2 monitor and use it as a proxy for well or poorly ventilated your living and working spaces are.
Forget general society. The majority of people here on Hexbear dot net are plague rats. You can especially tell when people here get hyped about watching Hollywood slop in the Covid death traps called movie theatres.
and we’re supposed to organize with people worse than this.
I have a CR box actually! The Air Fanta 3 Pro, it’s great :3. Sadly no Covid vaccines here since 2021. Not in the US. I work from home so I’m thankfully quite secluded lol, my partner isn’t though. I’m also an air quality nerd!! People dont recognise Covid as an issue, wont mask during pollution or such either, cant imagine when we get society to have proper ventilation in buildings lmao. What CO2 monitor do you recommend? I was waiting for new the one made by Adam Wong from Air Fanta, the Aranet 4 looks amazing though, but it’s so expensive:( I’d wish to also monitor PM2.5
What CO2 monitor do you recommend?
I just bought some cheapo CO2 monitor on Amazon lol. The Aranet is the one that I see people recommend, but it’s also super expensive.
I’d wish to also monitor PM2.5
From what I’ve seen, the good shit is also expensive. I bought some cheapo PM monitor, and I guess it works in the sense that number turns red if the monitor is next to smoke and number goes up if you shake a dirty towel next to it, but I have my doubts on the numbers themselves.
they do excellent reviews on PM monitors. There are many other options now than the Aranet4.
Excellent. I’ll need to digest the info on the website.
The only people I see mask are like goldfish,
what does this mean
44 year life expectancy and a penchant for eating their own young while bottom-feeding
As in rare, sorry lol
i feel you. its hard to feel useless to the movement…
