the vast majority of people I know mask to protect themselves or vulnerable people in their lives. implying a meaningful contingent of people mask as a way of virtue signaling (your t-shirt comment) is a ridiculous, bad faith assertion. your argument would hold up better if we still lived in world where cloth masks were the only things available; high quality n-95 masks are much more widely accessible and are used by most people needing to protect themselves. if you live a life where you have to protect yourself or others, it is fully reasonable and effective to ask for people in your sphere to recognize your situation and adapt to it by masking in high-risk situations. you’re right, it sucks that we’ve been abandoned by institutions at large! that does matter more! but your comments here are come across as some doomer shit + guilt and annoyance around being preached to disguised as materialism.
i didn't say people mask to virtue signal--i said that i personally believed that was too uncharitable a take, however, that i had multiple people in my notes proudly announcing exactly that. i just don't think that it makes me a "doomer" to point out that problems can only be solved by large-scale mass action and institutional change, both of which require actual disciplined political organizing and not just enough people deciding to do the right thing in spontaneous coordination.
