I agree with your sentiment but reality and physics prove your supposition -- as attractive and as reasonable as it sounds and as it has been "sold" over the past ten months -- completely false. So "here we go again":
1. You protect no one -- not even yourself -- when you improperly (as 99.99 percent of untrained people do) select, apply/seal, wear and maintain a mask. That is, setting aside physical reality for the moment, a mask that isn't properly fitted and worn with an intact seal maintained at all times around its perimeter is worthless. If the seal is broken by lifting or adjusting the mask at any time the seal must be re-established. Furthermore, a person wearing a mask cannot have any facial hair lest a seal not be established, much less maintained.
2. Although it is true that a mask will capture spittle or droplets expelled during a cough (most of which escape around the perimeter which is not sealed and at a higher velocity than if you weren't wearing a mask), like any non-HEPA dry filter when the droplets dry out on the mask surface just what do you think happens to the dry particles? They unload, either deep into your lungs when you inhale or through the mask itself which cannot contain a virus particle every time you exhale.
The "experts" -- much less the breathtakingly ignorant politicians and unelected bureaucrats -- who preach that masks work to stop transmission of a virus truly know that this is not true; therefore, what they are recommending or, in far too many instances, commanding you to do is a lie ... they are lying to you ... lying right to your masked face!
Still don't believe what I'm presenting from the perspective of 54 years (and counting) direct experience with personal protective equipment as an environmental health and safety professional? Then believe reality, my friend. Still think people like me are "idiots" because we don't do what we're told to do? Then take a look at what ten l-o-n-g months of commanded masking has accomplished ... zero; nada; nothing! -- although it has taken a year out of our childrens' lives).
As one doctor noted during a panel discussion last week: Although you may feel really good about yourself dutifully wearing your mask to "protect others", masking is not medicine, it's socialism.
Finally, to those who think mandated masking is not a big deal I submit it's a monstrous "deal". Trying to rebuild a society and attempting an economic recovery when 90 percent of the population looks like they belong in a sick ward, walking around depressed, angry and fearful of one another is as insane as are repeated and expanded masking, "distancing" and lockdowns have without doubt proven to be.
You have been lied to -- consistently, persistently and deliberately -- for almost a year. That's what should make you angry ... not rational people who refuse to play this game any longer.
To be crystal clear, my friend: I am not attempting to downplay the seriousness of this very contagious -- though far less deadly than originally predicted by the "experts" -- virus unleashed on the world by the Communist Chinese. I am not! What I am doing is attempting to shift the focus from the failed "protective measures" imposed by the governors and bureaucrats back to how we have normally dealt with a respiratory virus which didn't require destroying our society and our economy with lies.
I believe that ANY mandate is a bad thing.
I don’t think people should be asked, forced, or coerced by anyone to do anything.
I am saying that masks are not “socialist”. That’s ridiculous. The entire world is socialist and masks didn’t make that happen. Laziness did.
The road that were drive down is at least as wide as 2 cars. We drive on the right side, even when the incoming lane is completely clear. Think about that.
It’s part of living with others in a society. If I get pulled over for being in the oncoming lane, do I scream about how brainwashed and communist the world is?
No.
Do I understand that covid is mostly a hoax ? Yes. Do I like wearing a mask? No.
I don’t like wearing a suit either. The two ideas are similar though. I wear a suit to convey a message. I wear a mask to convey a message. If you’re comfortable in the message that YOU convey, then so be it.
What is intolerable is that my fellow freepers want to insult me and denigrate me for making my decision, and explaining my position on the topic.
I don’t deserve to be treated like that, and I won’t tolerate it.
All over the world people think that everyone around them MUST SSI what they want them to. To see this on free republic goes beyond folly. It gives our enemies something to mock us about.
Everyone who attacks me for thinking differently should never, ever, talk about collectivism and socialism.
Dear freerepublic,
You’re being stupid by telling me to do what you want me to do, and then bloviating about collectivism and group think in the same sentence. You’re clearly unqualified on the topic.
Love,
Celerity.