If there's a storm, you cancel plans without whining about needing to live life.

You wear a seatbelt, even though it may not save your life in an accident, without complaining it is uncomfortable or difficult.

You don't drive drunk, in part because you know it endangers others, without sniveling about your freedoms.

We can adjust behaviors for #COVID19, wear a mask, and protect others in the same way. This isn't hard. We already do it all the time.

#Covid
#CovidCautious
#CovidIsNotOver

@augieray
Cancelling something because of a storm doesn't usually cost money (in fact it may save you money).

Wearing a seatbelt costs you noting since it it built into all cars.

Not driving drunk saves you money because you didn't have to buy the booze.

But unless you know how to sew and have the materials on hand, wearing masks costs you money. But also they are much more obtrusive than the other things you mentioned, well except for possibly not driving drunk (and you do realize that some people do that anyway, right?).

And people just hate wearing them. Nobody will ever consider wearing a mask just a normal thing.

I get the point you are trying to make but just saying maybe you should come up with better arguments, because if I were on the fence about wearting a mask and I saw your list I'd be more likely not to wear one.

I think some people reach the point where they just get sick of dealing with Covid and, especially if they are fully vaccinated (or have bought into the MAGA lies), think "fuck it, I'll take my chances." Which is not a great attitude to have, granted, but then why did I get four Covid vaccinations if that doesn't protect me? I can see how even people who were initially pro-mask are just getting sick and tired of it, and it's really not the minor inconvenience you make it out to be, given that seeing each other's faces is one of the ways we communicate with each other.

@Lunatech No one thinks they won't drive drunk to save themselves money. In fact, not driving drunk often means taking a taxi home--a cost. And while the cost of seatbelts is sunk into every car sale, the argument against seatbelt requirements was very much about the cost.

Moreover, the risks that seatbelts prevent only occur while in cars, hence they're not obtrusive to the world. But the risks of COVID are in the air around us in public spaces, so of course the masks are obtrusive.

@augieray But the cost of seatbelts is not a cost that the user has to pay (at least not as a direct line item in the cost of a car), nor are seatbelts a consumable item like many disposable masks.

I guess my point is that if you are fully vaccinated then it should not matter how much COVID is in the air around us, in theory it's quite unlikely that you will get it or pass it on to others. And if someone who is able to be vaccinated chooses not to, that doesn't mean I should be forced to wear a mask to protect them. The people I do have sympathy for are those who, for whatever reason, are unable to be vaccinated. But that group keeps getting smaller as time passes. The honest truth is that many of the people who refuse to get vaccinated even though there is no medical reason they couldn't are probably people that many of us wouldn't miss much. I would bet that some close elections that were won by Democrats might have gone the other way if the GOP extremists hadn't been so anti-mask and anti-vax. Unfortunately for them, some of their voters were in the ground and unable to vote. And that may haver been the thing that saved some places from a fascist takeover! I am not wishing death on anyone, and I am certainly sympathetic toward families that have lost loved ones to COVID, but in the grand scheme of things it may not have been such a tragedy that some of the the MAGA types were so anti-vax and anti-mask that they sealed their own fates.

But the point I am making is that you are taking entirely the wrong approach. In essence, you are saying "here is a list of other unpopular things you do because you have been compelled to do them, and wearing a mask is just one more of them." And the reaction that a lot of people would have to that is, yeah, I hated being compelled to do those other things and wearing a mask is just a step too far - it's the hill I'm willing to die on (quite literally!). Besides, nobody is compelling me to do it YET, and therefore this is still one place where I can resist and not get arrested or fined!

Anyone wanting to get mask wearing to increase should NOT be reminding people that it's just another thing they may hate having to do. If you were at an ad agency pitching this as the idea behind a public service ad, they would laugh you right out of the room, because it's the most counter-productive approach you can take. In fact, even personally I felt my resistance to wearing a mask growing as I read your toot, and then that's when I got to thinking, if I am fully vaccinated then why am I still wearing a damn mask anywhere? If your goal is to get people to hate wearing masks even more than they already do, then just keep posting toots like that one!