Basically, wanted to know where people are at with mask wearing (as it relates to containing covid and all), I know it's been a while since it started. And I've seen people who say covid can still be threatening, like through long covid and such, even if the initial impact doesn't tend to be as bad. Being in the US, it's especially hard to tell what makes sense because the gov sorta gave up on containment a while back and only ever half-assed pushing mask wearing. And wearing a mask alone was a controversial thing in some places, even in the very beginning. Then there's vaccines, which of course help, but seems to be a thing like the flu where you have to get boosters to be fully covered for variant strains.
So in general, I'm wondering stuff like:
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Do you still wear a mask or not and why? And do you have distinctions like large crowds or anything like that?
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How does mask wearing compare by country, from what you know? For example, I'm sure China has a more pro-mask-wearing culture and policy overall, but I'm not clear on where they're at this late into it.
Partly asking cause I want to re-assess my own position on it, see if it makes sense to change it at all by now. I've still been doing it, in part out of inertia, but the US management of it is such a mess, in gov and culture, it's hard to tell when it makes sense to stop vs. just caving to peer pressure of people who were never acting responsibly to begin with.
99% of Americans would rather have all Palestinians get killed by Israel than see a 10% drop in the S&P 500 from arms divestment that'd be reflected in their retirement portfolio. Does that mean that communists have to bend over and not call out the bloodthirsty settlerbrained nonsense that the vast majority of people believe? Do we have to be nice to people who are committing violence against the disabled and elderly because they happen to be the overwhelming majority? Do we have to extend that politeness to online spaces that are supposed to be for likeminded people yet still appear to be full of the same plague rat mentality?
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Yep, not to mention somewhere about 60-70% of Americans disapprove of Israel's genocide. But the Uncommitted Movement just endorsed Kamala Harris. UAW had endorsed Joe Biden months ago after no concessions wrt Gaza. The distance between where western leftists lie and the radical actions that are actually necessary to stop the genocide of the Palestinian people, COVID, and climate collapse is immense. What do you think happens to that 60-70% figure when you break down the effects of the collapse of American empire? Do you think anywhere more than a miniscule number of Americans currently stand in solidarity with the aims of the Axis of Resistance of complete eradication of the Zionist entity and American presence from Western Asia? Or are they just sad because they saw Palestinians being murdered, but will just as easily become outraged by whatever propaganda tells them to be angry about China or Russia next?
What does this tell us about COVID? Upthread there is already criticism of the individualistic approach of criticizing non-mask-wearers and prescription of new measures for the COVID conscious community to demand. HEPA filters, better ventilation, etc. But the thing these issues have in common with the failure of western anti imperialism, is that if we can't even get the basic knowledge across to a critical mass of people, as to make them make changes in their ordinary routines and daily behavior, then we obviously have a nearly impossible task ahead of us when tackling systems that have defence mechanisms built into them, much hardee defence mechanisms than simple force of habit.
Does that mean that the most effective strategy is to scream at people until they change their minds about the small stuff, then get together to scream about the big stuff? Obviously not, that strategy is ineffective on its own and I agree with you there. But when immunocompromised comrades' lives are on the line, of couse I'll scream at people who should get it because it's patently absurd that I have to explain basic facts that we already understood a couple months into the pandemic to people that are supposed to be materialists.