There's also the social signalling effect, right. Imagine that you think that the (made up) Yellow Party are arseholes. They pass a law that makes it a legal requirement to wear the little yellow pin badge. Their reasoning is that advertising their presence is a good thing, because they stand for good in the world, and so by wearing their pin society improves as more people learn and are reminded they exist.
Is it a huge imposition? No, it's trivial. You won't _physically_ notice it.
But if you think the Yellows are wrong, then wearing a little badge is really going to piss you off. At best you might try to make parody of it - maybe you'll write "I hate Yellows" with the little yellow badge and wear that.
Masks are like that. If you don't want to wear one for whatever reason, you're going to resent being forced.
I make an active point of not wearing a mask because I think everyone is going to get coronavirus and that "slowing the spread" is no longer a meaningful concept. It's already spread, it's everywhere, almost everyone I know has had it and if that's too anecdotal you can look at the UK stats.
I'm vaccinated, so I'm not that worried for myself. But the part of town where I live has a large population of elderly people and people with disabilities and illnesses that put them at a higher risk of getting seriously sick or even dying of Covid, so in my situation wearing a mask, keeping my distance, etc. is - IMHO - an act of solidarity as much as anything else.
In Germany, people had to postpone surgery, including for things like cancer, because too many anesthesiologists are busy taking care of Covid patients in ICUs.
Maybe that just means "flattening the curve" has already failed beyond recovery. But if somebody you know has operable cancer and has to postpone surgery until it might no longer be operable, it's not easy to remain nonchalant about it.
Plus, I need to ride the bus, shop for groceries, and so forth, so I'll continue wearing a mask for the foreseeable future.
There's also the social signalling effect, right. Imagine that you think that the (made up) Yellow Party are arseholes. They pass a law that makes it a legal requirement to wear the little yellow pin badge. Their reasoning is that advertising their presence is a good thing, because they stand for good in the world, and so by wearing their pin society improves as more people learn and are reminded they exist.
Is it a huge imposition? No, it's trivial. You won't _physically_ notice it.
But if you think the Yellows are wrong, then wearing a little badge is really going to piss you off. At best you might try to make parody of it - maybe you'll write "I hate Yellows" with the little yellow badge and wear that.
Masks are like that. If you don't want to wear one for whatever reason, you're going to resent being forced.
I make an active point of not wearing a mask because I think everyone is going to get coronavirus and that "slowing the spread" is no longer a meaningful concept. It's already spread, it's everywhere, almost everyone I know has had it and if that's too anecdotal you can look at the UK stats.