Why do masks make people so angry?
Why do masks make people so angry?
I still mask, I think COVID is super serious and I work with immunocompromised patients in a hospital, and I take public transit, so it's just generally a good idea. I am very, very, very vaccinated, but I'm still not comfortable unmasked. Two angry men on separate occasions have made comments to me about masking and how I don't need to do it. I just stare right through them and ignore, but why are they so angry? It does not affect them in the slightest, and if they think I'm stupid have at it.
I’m immunocompromised and I wear a mask whenever I go out. When people challenge me, saying “COVID is over, and anyway, it’s just like a cold”, I tell them that it’s not over, it will never be over, over 100 people in our local city went to hospital just last week, and another 30 or so died from it.
I think that people know deep down that COVID really is serious, they don’t want to admit it or wear masks, and seeing people taking it seriously makes them feel threatened emotionally and philosophically.
Masks are a highly-visible sign of compassion. It's a sign that you don't want others to suffer due to your own actions, especially if you're suffering already. So when a person who has no compassion (but doesn't want to admit they have no compassion) sees a mask, they feel the need to defend themselves and attack the mask.
Masks are a highly-visible sign of compassion. It’s a sign that you don’t want others to suffer due to your own actions, especially if you’re suffering already.
I agree with this.
So when a person who has no compassion (but doesn’t want to admit they have no compassion) sees a mask, they feel the need to defend themselves and attack the mask.
I don't agree with this. There is no self awareness of lack of empathy in this group. Its not like they're recognizing masking as an empathetic action, and choose to act counter to telegraphy the don't care about empathy.
Instead, they (wrongly) see mask mandates as some kind of subjugation (even though it isn't). They build the narrative that "COVID is just like the flu" so no freedoms should be impinged. Personal exceptionalism demands they rail against anyone or anything demanding their obedience or compliance. They see the demand of not hurting others with the spread of disease as an infringement on their freedom.
The result of their actions is a lack of empathy, but I don't think that is their goal and they even have any awareness about anyone else's needs except their own.
They see mask users as "other" and "evil". Might as well wear a pro communist shirt.
Do-gooder derogation is a well studied phenomenon
It's not only stuff like lack of compassion. It's stuff like feeling that it challenges your worldviews, makes you feel the other person think their better for taking action you've chosen not to take, etc.
They'll react like that even against those who just try to protect themselves with a mask, just seeing it even if they're not being asked to change feels like a provocation.
It's like how Trump and Co talked about "the elites" (various experts) while being backed by the actual elites (billionaires). He wanted you to be scared of people who try to help you. Unfortunately the propaganda worked
Nobody's demanding they wear a mask, and nobody's infringing on their rights by wearing a mask. All that is being shown is another person not wanting to spread the disease. There is no demand to comply, other than their own conscience speaking in a quiet, quiet voice.
"They're wearing a mask to stop the spread of disease, and I feel a need to react to this person's wearing of a mask. Should I be wearing a mask to stop the spread of disease? I don't want to be mildly uncomfortable, though. No, they're the person in the wrong for wearing a mask. I should be angry with them."
No self-awareness needed.
This answer makes the most sense.
Some people are so sucked up in a COVID denialist media bubble they can’t help themselves. Seeing a mask isn’t just seeing someone minding their own damn business, it’s evidence of an existential threat to society.
Yeah, it’s stupid as shit, but that’s how they function. Nonreaction or minimal reaction as you’ve been doing is definitely the way to go. Anyone confronting you over a mask in public is probably not stable enough to have a discussion or argue with.
Yesterday, I was in the local Aldi to get some groceries and the cashier was sick. Coughing constantly, blowing her nose between customers. People complimented her for her strong will and eagerness to go to work despite being sick and found it admirable to act like this, I found it disgusting and was questioning my sanity.
Why is it socially acceptable to spread your bullshit disease everywhere instead of just staying at home and recovering quicker? Humanity learned nothing from covid.
Living paycheck to paycheck, limited if any sick time to take. Not a great excuse, I agree the common sense thing is to contain and recover, but that doesn't help with the bills or keep the job. Blame the system, not the people in it.
The system is gonna stay the same if the people don't change. That's why I like gen Z, they are smart enough to not put up with that bullshit.
Humanity still doesn't get germ theory. 🤷♂️
They also don't understand the proper definition of theory, conflating it with hypothesis or conjecture.
Trump made masks political, so wearing one is a political statement to these people.
They have made their political beliefs their entire personality to compensate for their low self confidence and so have to aggressively display their beliefs like a peacock anytime they think somebody is challenging those beliefs, regardless of how benign or irrelevant it is.
I dont think its just one US president
The same problem is in Romania too
Aye, as an American, I have only a limited view of the big picture, but my understanding of it is that while it was definitely a politicized issue across the globe, a lot of the far right extremists were emboldened to make it such a big issue by the actions of Trump and the Republican party in the US.
Like that convoy of Canadian Trump rioters who can't even vote for him if they wanted to because they live in Canada. Trump's been a poster-boy for crazies all across the globe.
Just tell them you have cancer and are immunocompromised. That usually shuts them up. Irrational people are not worth arguing with and sometimes this makes them think twice about harassing other people.
Ooh I like that.
"I'm immunocompromised, do you harass alcoholics about not drinking?"
"I have cancer...but the good news is it will be removed once one of us gets off this bus."
A lot of them got sucked into the whole "the government is forcing it on you to control the population", and they simply can't comprehend that anyone would voluntarily wear what they now consider being the symbol of submission to the government. In their mind it doesn't work and never worked and you're just virtue signalling your support of the government. It's wild and a lost cause.
I'd expect it to get much worse now.
There are a lot of sociopaths out there
Ill give you the term for it at the end because everyone hates the term. Its the same reason those people hate vegetarians, and gay men, and renewable energy, and small cars. Wearing a mask is consideration for others, its compassion for the vulnerable, its protecting yourself. Its weak, effeminate, unmanly. The whole of conservatism boils down to: toxic masculinity
You could try coughing uncontrollably next time. If they don't get the point then, there's no way they could be reasoned with.
No, take off the mask when they complain, and then have a huge coughing fit!
Haha one day I sat next to a woman on the bus and she looked at me and moved seats. Well think what you like.
I also mask. People don’t generally talk about it here, and masking wasn’t even very common back when the pandemic was taken more seriously.
Never faced any aggression but people do give you a wide berth which is kind of hilarious to me, but it doesn’t bother me at all.
The wide berth I don't care about, although mostly it's still pretty normal to see masks in hospitals, but some creep in a Fuck Trudeau shirt reeeeeeing at me about it on the bus I could live without. I always make sure to wear earbuds and just pretend I can't hear them.
I rather like the wide berth people give me even though it doesn’t make much sense. Like, anyone could have Covid, but if I had it and I wear a respirator I’ll be less dangerous than someone who has it and doesn’t wear one. I get that people equate respirators with spooky but that’s just because they haven’t thought about it.
Thinking back on it, there was a single dude that spoke to me randomly. I think it might have been because of the mask but I’ve genuinely no idea, I always wear ANC headphones and ignore people. It helps my anxiety a lot.
Sadly, the people that will really appreciate you using a respirator are those you generally don’t see out and about because they can’t be, it isn’t safe for them.
I live in Taiwan, people here wear masks for whatever reason and no one bats an eye. You can wear a mask if you are sick, have too much acne and want to hide it, or because you are a medical worker and need to protect yourself and patients like OP, etc.
It also helps that we all went through the SARS pandemic, which could be seen as the previous version of COVID. Unlike COVID, SARS transmits via respiratory droplets after symptoms like fever arise, so everyone learned to wear masks during that time, and it worked. When COVID came, we knew what to do.Oh SARS was awful. I felt for you guys.
The fabric of society and basic belief in science has been made a villain to fascist rubes.
Probably drank from the Kool-Aid during Covid times.
People are fucking stupid, and if the few people they look up to say masks are bad then that's just how it is, regardless of facts or logic.
because they're fucking morons. they see someone wearing a mask and think: "look at that idiot, he thinks he isn't gonna get sick? who fucken cares, it's just a cold, anyway, pussy."
Just say you are protecting them whether they like it or not
Due to immunocompromised people I regularly interact with, I masked and isolated much more and much longer than the average person in my area. I still keep a mask in the car and on my bike. They also come in useful when you don't want to be recognized or bothered by people. I'm not sure if they cause problems for some facial recognition tech, but that would be a welcome bonus.
I'm just freestyling here and I'm sure someone with a professional experience or academic background in psychology can tear it up for arsepaper, but I wonder if it's an innate fear?
Like the uncanny valley with autonomous human-style robots or how AI generated pictures of faces are sending primitive recognition patterns haywire, I wonder if covering up half of the visual cues to recognise someone as friend or foe provokes an in-built negative reaction?
I mean, it's not rational, but then chucklefucks who complain about it don't do rational even if it's in their interest.
I have never though about it that way, it is an interesting thought.
I believe, that some people put on that Covid denialism because they are unable to face the truth out of fear. And every mask is a reminder of that fear. I don’t have proof, but I know people who work that way with a lot of things, from climate to covid to Russia.
Very plausible in my opinion. Probably like white people who don't like hijabs.
So consider it from their position: fuck everyone else
Two angry men on separate occasions have made comments to me about masking and how I don’t need to do it. I just stare right through them and ignore,
I just say thanks, I prefer wearing it and I'm more comfortable with it on. That generally works.
but why are they so angry?
Might go back to the conflicting and stupid instructions we got when the pandemic started. The public health establishment lost all its credibility and continues to mess up.
It's not because of masking itself. It could be anything as long as it has an association with a group, the opposing group will get riled up.
My theory is that they see as a religious garment like a hijab/niqab, something you only do if you are a pro-illuminati cultist.
Edit: Or maybe they view it like a liberal version of the Maga hat.
Isn't it about five years too late to be asking this question?
Masks are a sign that things aren't the normal of 5 years ago.
Have you tried being a six foot tall male with visible anger issues themselves?