[ArtDodger]

I think many liberals in America think they want to be socialists. If they actually were subject to a socialist regime, most would quickly change there minds. But, wearing a mask to them is like pretending to be under the thumb of an authoritarian government.
Those lucky Chinese, they think, were forced to wear grey clothes and caps with little red stars on them, and contribute to the communal pot that is allotted evenly among the people (as the fantasy goes).
Conservatives may see the masks as dog collars the government is trying to get around their necks for control.
Maybe both sides are, in their own ways, engaging in virtue signaling.

[Westbrook]

Agree,

To many, the mask is a political statement, another virtue signal.

[Robert DeLong]

But, wearing a mask to them is like pretending to be under the thumb of an authoritarian government.

No, you have to think as they do. So what they really think is that by wearing a mask:

is like imagining life under the loving and caring almighty figure who will protect them from all things bad. They need it because we have allowed the removal of the Lord from the public square. In addition we have mocked him so that they dare not believe that the Lord is a reality, for fear of being mocked themselves.

[T. P. Pole]

Conservatives may see the masks as dog collars the government is trying to get around their necks for control.

Yuppers - that's how I feel about them. The difference between subjects and free citizens.