i want to add:
if you’ve stopped masking for whatever reason, you can start again.
it makes spaces more accessible, it helps preserve your health and the health of the people around you.
it’s a tiny action you can take to make the world safer.
I've been on a 14 hour and a 16 hour train ride on two seperate days last week.
All that time. Through the WHOLE OF GERMANY, i have seen ONE person aside from myself who wore a mask.
I felt like the biggest monkey on the planet.
Maybe. But all the "stats" and "reason" dont help me when i feel like "that guy" again. Always the weirdo, always the odd one out.
People didnt seem sick either, or showed any usual covid signs.
Its hard to keep up...
Alright. Because people seem to have trouble grasping this.
It is hard to SEE people ignoring the stats, that tell me i should mask up. I have one reality where i read about some statistics and another reality where NOBODY almost literally NOBODY gives a fuck.
And THAT makes it hard for me to keep this up.
If that is appaling to anyone, please feel free to check if you got any empathy left, or if youre only driven by telling people they are wrong to have emotions.
I'm so high risk that I have to cancel certain doctor appointments when covid cases are too high in my area
I have had about...3 hugs? This entire year so far.
I can't go anywhere in public for fun where others aren't also masking.
Who exactly do you think should be centered in people's empathy?
To use your own points:
The reason you don't SEE people like me is because we're stuck at home, out of view.
If you only look at who's present, you don't notice who's missing.
I simply would not be able to take a 14 and 16 hour train ride right now. There are plenty of others like me.
So i see the twitter-whatboutism is still alive on this site too.
Youre concluding, because youre sick or at high risk, thats the case for everyone? And there couldnt be people infected with symptoms around?
I'm sorry you have to protect yourself to this extreme, but we're in the same boat.
Uuuh okay?
So youre saying a person having covid is immediately house bound?
If people would be instantly bedridden upon contracting covid i could understand that view, but if that was the case this shit would not be easily ignored.
it’s wild to me that you think you are the only person with this experience.
it also does not change the fact that your choices are:
- stick out for masking
- cause harm to other people
i empathize, and empathy is not a free pass for harmful behavior.
i DO find it appalling that you are berating someone *who has experienced long-term harm* as a result of other people’s decision to quit masking, and demanding empathy from me.
where is your empathy? because from this interaction, empathy sounds like something you receive but do not extend.
we are actually overflowing with empathy because we know how much life can change from one single infection. i’ve had ME/CFS for decades, probably because of strep throat. is it worth the risk to you personally to get all that cumulative damage?
bsky.app/profile/m00p...
when we beg people to mask up, we are doing it because we know from experience how much the chronic illness life can suck.
we’re not trying to control you. we really just don’t want anyone else to have to suffer needlessly and also, uh. we want to stay alive and not get further disabled ourselves!
also, bird flu is on the way, which is transmitted by air and by surfaces.
why on earth would you want to risk breathing in something that kills you 50% of the time?
That emotion you feel, that mental struggle, is a measure of how screwed up things are, an indicator of importance. A society that socially punishes people for trying to act ethically is WRONG. Doing well by each other should be easy. Think about why it's hard, who has made it hard. Stick it out.
we have known for almost 5 years now that asymptomatic transmission happens.
is it harder to wear a mask, or to grapple with the fact that you may kill or disable someone else because you decided not to do something as easy as masking?
no, i absolutely do get your point.
as someone who has not stopped taking precautions, but is living with long covid because other people did, i have very limited patience for “but nobody else is doing it.”
choosing not to wear a mask harms people. is it worth harming people to fit in?
I'm sorry you feel so uncomfortable being the only one in a mask. But I really want to encourage you to learn to accept such discomfort, because often in life you will have the chance to be the first to do what is right and it usually feels better than going along with what is wrong.
Thats the big reason why i do it.
I'm all out of safety nets, if i get Long Covid and my productivity goes down the drain, i am literally DONE for in this day and age.
I went to a week long work conference back in February where I was the only person at my big company's sales and marketing meeting to wear a mask, and I wore my Flo mask so it stood out even more. It sucks to feel alienated, and I get it. Without the mask on I'm weird enough as it is.
The cognitive dissonance of people having fun unmasked vs me in my moderately sweaty mask knowing that I am making the right decision for the long run fucking sucks ass. But then a ton of them got covid from each other on the trip. It's a lifelong ant and grasshopper story at this point.
Ill never know how many trips and outings I took when I masked without needing to. But I've decided I'd rather choose that than know for SURE that I didn't mask when I should have.
Maybe thats the big thing about this that terrifies me so much.
Seeing tons of people around me, with nobody having the brain/social capacity to do the right thing...
Well that makes me just feel awful about the state of the world.
But even though i trust science, there is always that lingering doubt that comes from 'herd mentality'.
I hope this whole situation changes some day, for the better.
