You aren't that dense. I just explained to you why people are wearing them.

Wearing masks in cars, or jogging on the west side can’t be blamed on the subway.

Here you go. It was on your ABC station a few nights ago. https://www.abc15.com/news/region-ph...e-housing-boom

People who chauffeur people around will obviously wear masks in a car. That falls under public transit.

Bullshit. Nobody is jogging with a mask on. You're making shit up now.

people in US cities walking around outside masked in march of 2022 may be (in no particular order):

1. just going to/coming from an establishment that is still requesting people to wear a mask
2. just going to/coming from transit/taxi/rideshare/whatever
3. virtue-signaling
4. paranoid/anxious
5. stupid
6. have a cough/runny nose/fever/sneezing/whatever and don't want to spread their germs
7. it can still be fucking cold in march in some places and a mask feels nice to them
8. a wannabe islamic fundamentalist
9. some other reason

or any combination of the above



unless you're stopping and asking every person you see on the street who's still wearing a mask why they are doing so, making blanket statements about their motivations only serves to show that you are in fact talking out of your ass.

you don't know.

stop pretending that you do.

Re. NYC and masks, there aren't many people wearing them out in public anymore. And I'm in the type of neighborhood where virtue-signaling is basically religion. There's no one jogging with a mask, LOL.

If you see someone walking down the street in a mask, they're EXTREMELY likely to be headed to/from transit or some business where masks are required. So obviously it makes sense to not be taking on and off.

When I was in Mexico City over the holidays, I wore masks outdoors basically all day, not bc I had to, but bc every interior environment in the city required it. The only thing more annoying than wearing a mask is taking it on and off all day.

^ also, visitors from hootervilles are always taken aback by random large crowd situations in big cities as you are going about your day. for them crowds are only event related.

Not bullshit. I live in suburban Houston and I've seen it even around here. Mostly young people; high school/ college age. Not a lot but enough to where it's noticeable.

Bullshit, I see idiots on bikes with masks and people jogging with masks on here in Pittsburgh, and it was warm today and I still saw it. If it’s happening here, it’s def happening in NYC.

I would agree with this statement

Their body, their choice? It's also good for training to simulate altitude.
Was in SF on the embarcadero recently....joggers and bicyclers were not masked.

I fully support their freedom to wear a mask while doing whatever they want.

It’s actually very helpful. Unless very old, it helps me weed out who not to approach, be friends with, ect. I don’t want to surround myself with people who are anti-science. We’ve been told masks don’t do what they told us they’d do by practically everyone at this point. I prefer people who actually listen, observe, question and live in reality rather than in their own self imposed covid feverdream.

I don't know why it must be happening in NYC if it's happening in Pittsburgh. Those are two very different cities with very different cultures.

and the best part is, that works both ways!!!!!! :cheers:

example: i had to take my son to a doctor's appointment via the L the other day. our L stop is about 500' from our front door and per federal rules, masks are still required on all CTA property. i could have brought masks with us and put them on right before went into the station, but it was a cold day, and with hats and gloves and my son being 6, it was simply easier to put our masks on inside the comfort of our front hall for the 1 minute walk over to the L stop rather than fumbling around with all of that shit when we got over to the station.

had you walked past us on the sidewalk, you would have erroneously assumed that i'm some anti-science paranoid virtue-signaler not living in reality who was child-abusing my son by making him wear a mask outside. of course, absolutely none of that is remotely true, i was just taking the path of least resistance to comply with CTA mask rules while running an errand with my son on a cold march afternoon, but by your own admissions in this thread you would have assumed all of that none-the-less and stayed away from us and seen me as not "worthy of your friendship".

and i would've been happy that you did. :D

EVERYBODY WINS!

So by me not wearing a mask, per your “win-win” comment, while outside, would make me anti science? It makes me paranoid or living in a fever dream?

Yeah that isn’t exactly a two way street.

I understand in this case it was easier for you and I can empathize or even get on board with that. If you were jogging along the lake with a mask on..... that’s where my comment is directed. Context is important, I realize that and hope you can too.

I mean in the context of NYC. I'm out everyday and I honestly can't remember the last time I saw someone jogging with a mask on. Not since early pandemic. It doesn't really make sense because we're all in such close contact here. We understand better than just about any place in the country when wearing a mask is, and isn't, useful for blocking virus particles.

Now, it's entirely possible that he mistook someone jogging with a face warmer for someone jogging with a mask. Because it's still winter here.

Even more unfortunate weeding out potential friendships based on who is/ isn't wearing masks. Yeah, I am over the mask charade myself but I could not imagine writing a person off over one tiny aspect of their existence.

and my comment is directed at you making assumptions about other people wearing masks. there's no way for you to know the full context of that other person you see wearing a mask that you randomly cross paths with for only a handful of seconds on the street.


once again, unless you're stopping and asking every person you see on the street who's still wearing a mask why they are doing so, making blanket statements about their motivations only serves to show that you are in fact talking out of your ass.

you don't know.

stop pretending that you do.

At this point, with years of data and science telling us that the masks are not necessary anymore, yeah I think it’s fair to say people who are still casually hiding themselves are probably not very fun to be around.

In the early pandemic I would not have wanted to be around anti maskers. I was for masks, we knew nothing about covid and we wanted to cling to whatever made us more comfortable. Masks were sold to us as this comfort, and anti maskers were a threat to that.

Now we know better, but I absolutely know the majority of people would say, in the beginning of the pandemic, that they would avoid maskless people if possible.

Now I will avoid the masked while in unnecessary settings, because it shows massive cognitive dissonance and lack of grasp of reality.

Being anti-mask is more of a virtue-signaling identity these days. Or a substitute for having a personality.

:haha:

BIG YIKES hahaha

There's hardly anyone wearing masks anymore so it's weird seeing someone going on an anti-mask crusade like it's 2020.

It's kind of like that trucker convoy protesting non-existent mandates right as the pandemic is winding down.

Weird people. It sounds like they really miss the pandemic.

i still see it around my neighborhood.

the closer to an L stop you are, the more likely it is to see.

so instead of looking down on outdoor maskers derisively, i just mentally chalk it up as "oh, they probably just got off the L".

because hey, sometimes that dreaded outdoor masker is even me, going to or from the train.

Oh sure, people are still wearing them where required. But these days I hardly ever see anyone walking around outside or driving with one on. It's like 1% of people around here. It might be higher or lower in other cities. The point is, who cares anymore? It's that last one or two percent that really sticks in their craw :haha:.

People who were maskless during the beginning of the pandemic were deliberately ignoring the science, flouting local mandates and ignoring mask policies in businesses so yeah, that's an easy judgment call. They were assholes. I would've avoided them.

As for people wearing masks now; yeah it's weird and there's probably some virtue signaling going on but as long as they aren't trying to force that on you or make you feel shitty for not wearing yours, it's a false equivalency to tie the two situations together.

so as we see and it seems its not just the sick or old that get most affected by covid, its based on genetic factors:



Apparently one's genes (specifically 16 of them) determine how severe Covid's effects will be in individual cases..



From today's Financial Times:

Coronavirus treatment

Scientists identify genetic factors behind severe Covid symptoms

...British scientists have identified some of the genetic factors that make certain people more likely to suffer severe Covid-19 symptoms than others, as part...

March 7, 2022


since ft has a paywall here is the source:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04576-6

totally.

i don't care.

i'm just pointing out that, when you do not know the context of why an individual you see wearing a mask outside is doing so, automatically assuming that they are a paranoid, anti-science, reality-denying, virtue-signaling moron is a pretty stupid game plan.

maybe that person literally did just get of the L and is just walking home and didn't take their mask off for whatever reason. it happens.

or maybe they really are just a paranoid, anti-science, reality-denying, virtue-signaling moron.

unless you stop and ask them what they are doing? where they are going? where they are coming from? why are they wearing a mask? etc. there is no possible fucking way to know.

The people that care the most are the ones who constantly talk about how people are wearing masks. You usually don't see, at least on the forum, maximum rage for people not wearing masks. At least not anymore...
People are still getting furious for joggers or bikers wearing a mask and have to constantly bring it up. I bet some of you shout at the masked? Don't cha...?
LOL too at SF bikers/joggers not wearing masks but other areas who we think wouldn't be doing it...are.

I just don't get why someone else wearing a mask would make anyone angry.

I can understand why you - as an individual - might not want to wear masks any longer (though I consider them a minor hassle at most). I can understand why some people still want others to wear masks (it's not backed up by science any longer, but at least there's a semi-rational fear behind it).

But someone else wearing a mask around you? That literally impacts you about as much as...I dunno...someone wearing a Nickelback T-shirt. Maybe you think it signifies poor taste, but is it really worth haranguing them about?

For wearing a Nickelback T-shirt? Absolutely?

Exactly. It's so funny that a piece of cloth is so triggering :)

I think its more that the masks have become a proxy for demonstrating publicly your political positions.

Thats probably what the fuss is about not that you are being a hypochondriac by having it on.

There's no way to know why, as Steely said, without asking. You can kinda tell though by what an individual forumer will say. If their first response is "virtue signaling" or along those lines, they are the ones who get pissed at a person wearing a mask.

or you know, maybe you get off the bus and you leave your federally-mandated mask on as you walk home because it's 28 degrees out.

but there's no way that could ever happen. it's much better to just assume that person is nothing but a stupid virtue-signaling idiot.

and then get mad about it. :hell:

I was yelled at for not having a mask on in a bathroom before.

I dont think anyone would deny we have bene living through a series of mass hysterias fueled by social media for the past several years.

Btw did you show your support for Ukraine today (despite 90% of the population knowing nothing about the place three weeks ago) :runaway:

some idiots yell at people for not wearing masks.

other idiots yell at people for wearing masks.

stupid people have always existed. this is not news.

Yes I know my point is covid was very much a mass hysteria.

So why is somebody yelling at you about the mask? because to them it signals a political stance they disagree with or more accurately viscerally fight against

And vis versa

In my opinion this has been exacerbated by social media which causes narrative collapse. Nobody is on the same page, in fact they are on many different opposite and opposing pages.

Your original point was that a person wearing a mask is making a public personal political statement.

Sometimes they are. Sometimes they aren't.

I was just pointing that out.

Unless you ask someone why they're wearing a mask, you have no way of knowing if it's the former or the latter

Though that sure as fuck doesn't seem to stop some of the easily triggered anti-maskers from making the assumption of the former and then getting angry about it :haha:

Why would you be vice signaling in a bathroom? Nobody needs to know that you don't like following rules, although I hope you still will follow bathroom etiquette!

In any event, CPS is finally dropping its mask mandate on Monday.

That took longer than I wanted, but I'm just glad we've finally arrived at this point.

After that, transit and doctors offices will be the final places in my life where I'll have to be bothered with wearing a mask on a regular basis.

thank you. i dont want to piss next to that reckless and i don’t gaf fool. put yr mask on when you get up and walk around busy restaurants. and whats with the guilt ridden whataboutism ukraine deflection he posted? :shrug:

If it's no longer required, why should people have to follow your orders?

He probably got yelled at while it was still required, or it was at a bar and everybody was plastered. At that point he looks like an easy target and somebody (smashed) yelled at him for fun.

I’ve been In two doctor offices this week, got a CT scan today, possible cancer scare, will find out Monday, but didn’t have to wear a mask. Also, cancer is way way scarier than Covid. Don’t know what I’ll do if it’s positive as none of my jobs offer insurance and I currently have none; so I’ll be pretty royally fucked.

I was at the optician's today and nobody had to wear a mask.

^ well, I was at a doctor's office last week for an appointment with my son and the folks there were still doing face masks, face Shields, plexiglass barriers, the whole fucking nine.

Maybe that's not being done everywhere (I honestly don't know) that was just my most recent contact with the medical world.

As for masks on transit, I've been told that's a federal requirement, just like airplanes, so I think that's still in force nationally for now.

But we're getting closer, inch by inch.

My kids finally being able to go to school without masks is a big win!

It’s almost time to call it a wrap on this thread. The pandemic is over, and the rules (thankfully) are almost all gone. And the rules are the only issue now, namely masks which shouldn’t be a requirement anywhere anymore. The virus itself has faded into the background as a disease less worrisome than flu.

It’s a shame the FAA mandate was extended, that’s really the last shoe to drop in this nonsense (in the US and in Europe). You should have heard the head flight attendant (maître de cabine) on my flight last week pleading with people travelling between the UK and Switzerland (neither of which have mask mandates anywhere anymore, including transit) to wear them. It was pathetic.


edit: today is the first sunny, mild Saturday this year in London. And holy shit there are a lot of people around. Sidewalks are packed, you have to let the first tube train go because there’s no room to get on, traffic in the West End is at a standstill. Covid is completely and utterly gone here aside from an occasional oddball (usually Asian or European) wearing a mask.

Yeah I felt the same. Had about a two week panic in mid March, but once people in the West were not fainting in the streets and having seizures in public like in those Chinese (propaganda) videos that came out in January, I knew this was more a plandemic than pandemic based on the responses.

People are permanently scarred though. I still see a lot of masking, even when alone with only their dog on the sidewalk. My organization is still WFH because we saved so much money on office rent in expensive west coast cities but we are planning a couple in person all staff retreats starting in the Fall. I see many companies/orgs will go this way. One big negative we've heard from those who have gone back to the offices we have is they commute to work to sit in the same zoom meetings they could have had at home.

That stupid SafePass needs to go away first before I say LA is completely back. Many businesses I've seen dont care though. I went to Roscoes and the employee asked for our passes. I misheard her and asked her to repeat what she said and she just waved us through. At salsa and beer they asked for it and I showed them a random covid card on my phone and they let me in lol. They dont got time for that mess either.

I agree with you here, the thread should have been wrapped up a long time ago. FYI: There are more daily deaths in the US today (1,100) than there were this time last year. Either the masks and all the arbitrary mandates were useless political theater or the masks and all the mandates were simultaneously dropped for the upcoming 2022 election.

Viral transmission on airplanes is almost nonexistent. The last shoe to drop is when we stop forcing kids as young as 2 to wear a mask and when all public schools and colleges go mask optional. They fall in the demographic that is least likely to be hospitalized, fall ill or even experience mild symptoms.

But it was the anti maskers that turned out being more correct in the first place. Wouldn't you want to be friends with people that saw through the government and media bullshit first? The ones who actually researched the sciences vs assume what they were being told on the news was correct. They were the ones saying bandannas and tshirts being used as masks were worthless long before the government finally said the same thing as just one example.

I have friends on both sides, and basically I just don't discuss dystopian stuff with the ones who only now think it's okay to take off the mask because the government said so. They have been wrong on just about every prediction the last 2 years, meanwhile the conspiracy friends are batting like .900.