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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   2843 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 31, 2023

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So... it's nearly 2024. Why are there still a noticeable amount of Americans wearing Covid masks everywhere they go? I traveled in Europe recently and I saw essentially ZERO masking. When I did see a mask it was obviously an Asian or American tourist. (And yes, Americans are easy to spot. North Face jackets are a dead giveaway).

Seriously, the rate of masking was below 0.1%. I'm not sure I saw a single French person wearing one.

Yet, here in Seattle, I still see Covid masks everywhere. On the plane, on the train, in a box, with a fox, at the movie theater, at the opera, at the grocery store, driving alone in a car (why?), riding a scooter on the fucking sidewalk, etc.. I'd estimate indoor masking rates are like 5% still. Are people in Seattle this mentally ill? Why is there such a difference between Europe and my corner of the US?

I think it might ironically be an example of American individualism. Some folks still call maskwearers sheep etc, but if you wear a mask at this point, you’re obviously bucking a great deal of indirect and sometimes direct societal pressure to just take it off and rawdog the air.

Lots of Euros wore a mask when the societal signal was to wear one and took it off when the society (I’d say the government, but there are still ‘formal’masking decals in public buses and so on, nobody just gives a shit) signaled that they should be taken off. A 2023-turning-2024 masker is resisting societal pressure - not to the same degree as 2021-turning-2022 antivaxxer, but still.

The Japanese soldiers who think the war is still going.

I think this explains most of it.

Americans really want to express themselves. The N-95 on the bus is the mirror image of the "Let's Go Brandon" t-shirt.

If I remember correctly, bumper stickers aren't really a thing in Europe either.

If I remember correctly, bumper stickers aren't really a thing in Europe either.

I see them on about 1 in 500, maybe 1 in 200 or 1 in 1000 cars in Poland.

Not sure is it making it a thing or not a thing.

Rate is much higher in the US. 1 in 10 maybe?

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