Pret just recently introduced a coffee subscription plan. What sort of business these days doesn’t have a subscription plan?? Mrs P and I can have five coffees a day, every day, for just £20. The first month is free. We’re currently on the first month. There is every chance we will cancel just before the first month ends. We have good intentions regards economising.
Yesterday morning we arrived at Pret just before they opened. There were three in the queue ahead of us. None wore masks. Just us. I find this widespread reluctance to don a mask odd, I truly do. At best, they could help contain the spread of the virus, allowing us to largely get on with life. At worse, they are a minor irritant. It seems to me that on that basis, and in the circumstances of the current pandemic, a rational person would just don the mask and get on with it.
What goes through anti-maskers minds? Is this an economical thing? Capitalists v socialists, the former ditching the mask when they realise they do nothing for me, me, me. Is this an educational thing? Those educated in school or life v those educated on Facebook and YouTube. The latter seeing grand conspiracy theories in the most innocuous things and ditching the mask because…you know. Chemtrails, 5g and Qanon.
Is it a political thing? Populists v Normalists, the former taking their lead from lunatics, fascists and the ignoratti. You know the sort. Trump and Bolsonaro being the finest examples. Is it a cultural thing, East v West. People from the Far East seem to have a far better grip on this. And seem to be doing a better job at containing spread of the virus.
In all likelihood, there’s a mix of all those categories and more at play. It’s a little depressing. If one does want to rebel against the rules, stand out amongst friends or otherwise stick two fingers up at authority, then there are better issues to make your stand. This probably isn’t the hill on which to choose to die kill your elderly relatives.
The Mexile 
Half of us have an IQ of 100 or less. Half of us are below normal in the smarts department and a good many of the above 100s have mental issues of one sort or another. As in so many things dealing with our current predicament, it is a numbers game. The mask protects you to some extent. If for no other reason… the mask will reduce the severity of any infection you contract because of a reduced viral load. Or so I’ve read.
Darwin never sleeps.
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I’m sure just a couple of Stephen Hawking types send that ratio out of balance, and another 10% below the median line…!
What’s gets me is that this really shouldn’t be controversial. It’s pretty straightforward. And even if one were to believe that it’s ‘not settled science’ then there is concession that the masks might work more or less as intended.
Darwin is doing overtime. Lots of it.
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Good article. I don’t know if wearing or not wearing is a political argument but I would had to lose the argument and my life as well. In the US I’d say that you are being a cheapskate by stopping your subscription before the month ends. But I am in Mexico where we prefer to economize. Just don’t forget to stop the subscription before the month ends. They are counting you forgetting.
Rich
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All subscriptions profit from the lazy or the forgetful. I’m neither. Even subscription I start has a corresponding calendar entry that I use to make sure I cancel in time.
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The Bell Curve is a heartless thing. The Hawkings are out there on a slope that looks as flat as a billiard table, the same goes for the extreme dullard end-it equals out. The vast majority are in the middle, the top of the bell, a little one way or the other, that is where education and culture play the biggest part.
I had an old lady tell me that the mask mandate will go away after the election. She was married to a guy who had tattoos all over his shaved head. The tattoo guy had his head in a paper. I’m guessing they can both read, the jury is out on the old women.
I had a guy ask me about Bill Gates making vaccines with tracers, the man is married to a PHD nurse-microscopes are real…
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I’m getting myself involved in conversations that I should probably avoid. There’s as much point reasoning with a hardened conspiracy theorist as there is with my two year old nephew.
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