Republican supporters of the ban said it would help police crack down on protesters who wear masks

House Bill 237 would ban everyone, not just protesters, from wearing masks in public for medical reasons if it becomes law. It passed 30-15, with every Republican in favor and every Democrat opposed.

  • goose [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Sometimes I really fucking hate this place instead of just regular fucking hating it

    Our family will still mask when we're indoors in public regardless of the laws around it

  • edge [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Oh fun, I guess I’m about to become a criminal.

    • FlakesBongler [they/them]
      ·
      7 months ago

      I've been a criminal for a loooooong time

      Just that now, I'm gonna be a masked criminal instead of a hood and sunglasses criminal

  • Wertheimer [any]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Batch and Grafstein each proposed amending the bill in ways they said would still give police the power that Republicans have said they want, to crack down on masked protesters, but to add back in legal protections for people who wear masks for public health reasons.

    Compromise!

  • dead [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    7 months ago

    Posting this as a throwback story of NC history.

    In response to the white supremacist Charleston Church Shooting of June 2015, there were public protests for the removal of confederate monuments from public property. In July 2015, North Carolina passes a law which makes it illegal for local governments to remove confederate statues from public property.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_History_Artifact_Management_and_Patriotism_Act_of_2015
    https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/SessionLaws/HTML/2015-2016/SL2015-170.html

  • sappho [she/her]
    ·
    7 months ago

    I feel this is the first of many laws like this. I haven't felt this deeply crushed, hopeless, and afraid for a very long time. It's hard to keep going when your life is so small and everyone in power is bent on making it even smaller. I don't know how I will do it, and sometimes I wish I wouldn't keep trying.

    • itappearsthat
      ·
      7 months ago

      It helps to read history. People have persevered under way, way more brutal regimes than this. And won. Before the 1917 revolution people operated under the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police, who could disappear and torture you for any reason whatsoever. Striking workers were massacred by the hundreds. And still people organized. They persevered. And they won.

  • operacion_ogro [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Republican supporters of the ban said it would help police crack down on protesters who wear masks

    he-admit-it

  • roux [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Republican supporters of the ban said it would help police crack down on protesters who wear masks

    Tell me you know you're the bad guy without telling me you know you're the bad guy.

  • FourteenEyes [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    I'm going to go on a limb here and assume that this was slammed through so quickly they didn't think about people who literally have to wear a mask on the job, like construction workers filling in insulation, and it's just going to create a giant expensive mess for a few months before it's thrown out by the courts for being absolutely asinine

  • stigsbandit34z [they/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    This was always the end goal let’s be honest. Any time the marginalized repurpose a tool for use to benefit all, it’s always going to be swiftly squashed. Especially in a surveillance state

    “Bug bug bug my China is a surveillance state!!!!!!1111” OK? But it seems that most of the people living in China can afford to live (i.e. the bare fucking minimum)

    The bar doesn’t even exist in amerikkka

    • OgdenTO [he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      China, famous for being a place where people aren't allowed to wear masks

  • RION [she/her]
    ·
    7 months ago

    covid when it has a state-wide incubator POG-19

    • QueerCommie [she/her, fae/faer]
      ·
      7 months ago

      The evil liberal surveillance state wants to force me to wear a mask, so I will get my good more reactionary surveillance state to prevent anyone to do so.

  • cream_provider [none/use name]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Also passing the Senate Wednesday were bills that would: Modernize sex crime laws to address new technologies like artificial intelligence. Increase toll road late fees by 50%. Allow billboard companies to cut down more trees on the roadside. Automatically charge 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in many felony cases, a partial reversal of juvenile justice reforms that went into effect in 2019.

    They’re really on a roll over there. Not that the democratic governor is going to sign any of this bullshit the mask ban

    • Wertheimer [any]
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      Yeah, they've had similarly performative vice-signaling bills in recent legislative sessions: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a40543385/north-carolina-wants-remove-free-public-ev-chargers/

      Edit - Although it looks like the Republicans have the votes to override a veto on the mask ban, so this one might not end up being performative.