I still mask, I think COVID is super serious and I work with immunocompromised patients in a hospital, and I take public transit, so it’s just generally a good idea. I am very, very, very vaccinated, but I’m still not comfortable unmasked. Two angry men on separate occasions have made comments to me about masking and how I don’t need to do it. I just stare right through them and ignore, but why are they so angry? It does not affect them in the slightest, and if they think I’m stupid have at it.

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
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    31 minutes ago

    A lot of them got sucked into the whole “the government is forcing it on you to control the population”, and they simply can’t comprehend that anyone would voluntarily wear what they now consider being the symbol of submission to the government. In their mind it doesn’t work and never worked and you’re just virtue signalling your support of the government. It’s wild and a lost cause.

    I’d expect it to get much worse now.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    22 minutes ago

    Just tell them you have cancer and are immunocompromised. That usually shuts them up. Irrational people are not worth arguing with and sometimes this makes them think twice about harassing other or people.

  • falkerie71@sh.itjust.works
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    44 minutes ago

    I live in Taiwan, people here wear masks for whatever reason and no one bats an eye. You can wear a mask if you are sick, have too much acne and want to hide it, or because you are a medical worker and need to protect yourself and patients like OP, etc.
    It also helps that we all went through the SARS pandemic, which could be seen as the previous version of COVID. Unlike COVID, SARS transmits via respiratory droplets after symptoms like fever arise, so everyone learned to wear masks during that time, and it worked. When COVID came, we knew what to do.

  • solrize@lemmy.world
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    5 minutes ago

    Two angry men on separate occasions have made comments to me about masking and how I don’t need to do it. I just stare right through them and ignore,

    I just say thanks, I prefer wearing it and I’m more comfortable with it on. That generally works.

    but why are they so angry?

    Might go back to the conflicting and stupid instructions we got when the pandemic started. The public health establishment lost all its credibility and continues to mess up.

  • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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    3 hours ago

    Masks are a highly-visible sign of compassion. It’s a sign that you don’t want others to suffer due to your own actions, especially if you’re suffering already. So when a person who has no compassion (but doesn’t want to admit they have no compassion) sees a mask, they feel the need to defend themselves and attack the mask.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Masks are a highly-visible sign of compassion. It’s a sign that you don’t want others to suffer due to your own actions, especially if you’re suffering already.

      I agree with this.

      So when a person who has no compassion (but doesn’t want to admit they have no compassion) sees a mask, they feel the need to defend themselves and attack the mask.

      I don’t agree with this. There is no self awareness of lack of empathy in this group. Its not like they’re recognizing masking as an empathetic action, and choose to act counter to telegraphy the don’t care about empathy.

      Instead, they (wrongly) see mask mandates as some kind of subjugation (even though it isn’t). They build the narrative that “COVID is just like the flu” so no freedoms should be impinged. Personal exceptionalism demands they rail against anyone or anything demanding their obedience or compliance. They see the demand of not hurting others with the spread of disease as an infringement on their freedom.

      The result of their actions is a lack of empathy, but I don’t think that is their goal and they even have any awareness about anyone else’s needs except their own.

      • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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        2 hours ago

        Nobody’s demanding they wear a mask, and nobody’s infringing on their rights by wearing a mask. All that is being shown is another person not wanting to spread the disease. There is no demand to comply, other than their own conscience speaking in a quiet, quiet voice.

        “They’re wearing a mask to stop the spread of disease, and I feel a need to react to this person’s wearing of a mask. Should I be wearing a mask to stop the spread of disease? I don’t want to be mildly uncomfortable, though. No, they’re the person in the wrong for wearing a mask. I should be angry with them.”

        No self-awareness needed.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          Nobody’s demanding they wear a mask

          Which country are we talking about. In the USA there were absolutely mask mandates.

          “They’re wearing a mask to stop the spread of disease, because they are sheep and I feel a need to react to this person’s wearing of a mask to prove to everyone else within eyesight I am not sheep lest they question my superiority."

          FTFY, they don’t see the mask as preventing disease that needs to be prevented. They see COVID as a mild inconvenience. An inconvenience that isn’t worth doing anything to prevent it, and they get upset when anyone tells them they should care about it (even if its just for other people’s sake).

          • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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            48 minutes ago

            There WERE mandates. This is something someone is currently doing, not something someone did several years ago. Literally nobody is telling them to do shit. The angry chucklefucks are upset someone else is doing something while demanding nothing from them. If people are still upset about masks, it’s not because of obedience.

  • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 hours ago

    Some people are so sucked up in a COVID denialist media bubble they can’t help themselves. Seeing a mask isn’t just seeing someone minding their own damn business, it’s evidence of an existential threat to society.

    Yeah, it’s stupid as shit, but that’s how they function. Nonreaction or minimal reaction as you’ve been doing is definitely the way to go. Anyone confronting you over a mask in public is probably not stable enough to have a discussion or argue with.

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    3 hours ago

    Yesterday, I was in the local Aldi to get some groceries and the cashier was sick. Coughing constantly, blowing her nose between customers. People complimented her for her strong will and eagerness to go to work despite being sick and found it admirable to act like this, I found it disgusting and was questioning my sanity.

    Why is it socially acceptable to spread your bullshit disease everywhere instead of just staying at home and recovering quicker? Humanity learned nothing from covid.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      Living paycheck to paycheck, limited if any sick time to take. Not a great excuse, I agree the common sense thing is to contain and recover, but that doesn’t help with the bills or keep the job. Blame the system, not the people in it.

    • zerog_bandit@lemmy.world
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      25 minutes ago

      Agree. I voted Kamala but damn all these threads trying to make mountains out of molehills is pretty dumb.

  • eran_morad@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    because they’re fucking morons. they see someone wearing a mask and think: “look at that idiot, he thinks he isn’t gonna get sick? who fucken cares, it’s just a cold, anyway, pussy.”

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      My coworker had 15 relatives die of COVID in India pre vaccine. Attending fifteen virtual funerals should be something these freaks are forced to do.

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
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    2 hours ago

    It’s not because of masking itself. It could be anything as long as it has an association with a group, the opposing group will get riled up.

  • MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub
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    4 hours ago

    You could try coughing uncontrollably next time. If they don’t get the point then, there’s no way they could be reasoned with.

  • PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk
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    3 hours ago

    I’m just freestyling here and I’m sure someone with a professional experience or academic background in psychology can tear it up for arsepaper, but I wonder if it’s an innate fear?

    Like the uncanny valley with autonomous human-style robots or how AI generated pictures of faces are sending primitive recognition patterns haywire, I wonder if covering up half of the visual cues to recognise someone as friend or foe provokes an in-built negative reaction?

    I mean, it’s not rational, but then chucklefucks who complain about it don’t do rational even if it’s in their interest.

    • lemmylommy@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      I have never though about it that way, it is an interesting thought.

      I believe, that some people put on that Covid denialism because they are unable to face the truth out of fear. And every mask is a reminder of that fear. I don’t have proof, but I know people who work that way with a lot of things, from climate to covid to Russia.