How do you know?
Is that true?
I’m not seeing it.
I’m not seeing where the confidence comes from, to announce that. How do people know such things? Where do they get them?
Why would we be “addicted” to our fear?
Really, why? What’s the reward that creates the addiction?
Why would we “fall in love with” our fear? Fear is nasty, so why would we fall in love with it?
I had a charismatic Comparative Literature teacher at university a few centuries ago who did this kind of thing regularly – informed us that professed motives were fake and the actual ones were something less idealistic and more selfish: sex or sadism or greed and the like. At some point I noticed that it was a pattern, and got bored with it, despite the charisma.
This nonsense is like that. It’s a silly show-offy empty bit of shtick. Oh you think people are genuinely concerned about the virus? Hahaha you are so naïve no of course they’re not, they’re lining their pockets, or they’re polishing up their CVs, or they’re addicted.
And you know that how, O genius of the tweeterverse? Your insight was bestowed on you by what tooth fairy?
It’s sad to see someone who used to be intelligent fall down this storm drain.
There’s something to it… though I wouldn’t necessarily use that wording. Last week on 538 they had an episode on liberals’ lockdown hesitancy not following the science (citing a lack of institutional trust amongst other things); I think it was based on a The Atlantic article.
Funny thing. I usually get sick two to three times a year. Since this all started, despite working in a retail environment with heavy foot-traffic, I haven’t had an actual sick day. I have every intent of continuing to wear the mask until I’m told I can’t, because time spent sick is time spent not working and earning money (as a nominally part-time worker, I have no paid sick days, thanks GOP).
I’m not ‘addicted’ to the mask, nor to fear, nor anything else. I’ve just realized this is actually a healthier option for me.
I used to want to be a charismatic Comparative Literature professor. I love telling people they have covert motives of which they are unconscious. I got the PhD and everything. But going to conferences cured me.
Yes, a lot of people have suffered high levels of anxiety during the pandemic. Surely some people are still experiencing more anxiety than is warranted in some conditions – like the people who twitch their masks indignantly when I bicycle by them. But “addicted to fear?” “Traumatized?” I wouldn’t go that far.
I agree with Freemage. I see masks becoming a permanent part of our culture. They’ve been doing it in Japan for ages. We’re the idiots, not them. Like Freemage, I’ve never been so healthy for so long. I didn’t have bronchitis one single time in two entire winters!
Funnily, I’ve heard that some anti-vexers and anti-maskers are now wearing masks to protect themselves from the supposed vaccine fragments shed by people who have been vaxed. This shit just gets weirder and more recursive by the day.
Also, I ‘love’ autocorrect. Not sure how I feel about anti-vexers though.
If I were “addicted” to mask-wearing, one would think that I wouldn’t leave the house half the time without one and then have to turn back to retrieve it when I realize my error. Apparently this is an addiction with no umfph to it.
“Addiction to masks”. “Love of fear”. “Self-traumatized”. Sounds like a load of pop-psy bullshit to me, and really no different from the schlock that any other uneducated snake-oil salesman peddles. The only thing missing here is some use of the words “self-actualization”.
This is what one gets when one puts oneself forward as an expert on something on the basis of personal anecdotes without any formal training, research background, or even 10¢ worth of common sense, apparently.
I’m not “addicted” to fear, but I should probably be further along on my Return to Normal than I am. I’ve formed cautious habits and gotten used to conveniences like grocery delivery. It doesn’t help that I had trouble getting around anyway.
Tomorrow night I’m going to a restaurant for the first time in over a year. Wish me luck.
;)
Now I’m imagining an anti-masker cartoon of someone taking off their mask and revealing their “true self”. Something similar to this
Congrats!
I think habit is a real source of possibly excessive caution. I keep wondering to myself why I keep veering around people when I’m out walking, and then thinking oh well, just a little veer, easily done, might as well, doesn’t hurt anything. It is a habit but not a terrible one.
The 10¢ worth of common sense would make such a difference.
It’s not actually an addiction, but I do enjoy the social distancing, because I am the sort of person that doesn’t like crowds, and I don’t like it when people walk right up to me. If that’s an addiction, I had it long before COVID. In fact, I don’t remember a time I didn’t have it. Social distancing, I thought? YES! Fist bump.
“Addiction” is a foolish and – I think – irresponsible word to use. There’s nothing wrong with caution, particularly when it involves little more than putting a barely-noticible piece of cloth on your face. It’s not hurting anyone, the cost is negligible and it’s probably helping a bit so why not?
I do think there might be an element of superstition involved, though, and we should probably keep an eye on that. Masks aren’t talismans that ward off either covid or bad outcomes generally and as humans we’re all (to varying degrees) susceptible to falling into a tacit (or even explicit) belief that they are.
So be skeptically cautious, I reckon.
I’d ascribe the superstition more to the people who wear them on their chins, like pretend-beards.
Some people were apparently so traumatized and addicted to their fear of COVID-19 that they started wearing masks before anyone had ever caught it …
https://www.alamy.com/tokyo-japan-march-25-2019-crowds-of-people-walking-across-at-shibuya-famous-crossing-street-at-night-in-tokyo-japan-image334775028.html
Funny thing is that it’s been a really bad pollen season around here. Being able to “mask up” without people looking at me like I’m crazy (since I live in South Carolina and not Tokyo) has actually been a benefit for me during this allergy season.
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-covid-19-face-masks-can-reduce-outdoor-allergy-symptoms
Ophelia@13:
Yeah, could be. I do know a few people who feel unduly safe while they’re wearing a mask, though, even as they indulge in otherwise risky behaviour. I’d call that superstition in the wide and loose sense.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that once a person puts a mask on, a lot of them assume they can come in as close as they like to people, go into crowds without worry, and hug. Magic masks! A lot of people seem to think social distancing or masks, when it should be social distancing and masks.
Oh yes, that’s true. I have to keep reminding myself that the mask protects other people, not the wearer. Not exactly superstitious to think otherwise, but at least absent-minded.