WARNING: Those of you who are triggered by opinions not published by the staff of the Washington Post may not want to read this. One of the problems brought about by the undue panic revolving around the Wuhan Virus has been the creation of a new snitch society in the United States and, I would assume, the world. The constant media blitz has led otherwise reasonable people into believing that the only hope for humankind is to unquestionably obey the authorities, and they believe this even after the authorities have admitted that they've been making the numbers up. The fact that one computer model after another has fallen by the wayside, being nowhere near accurate, hasn't made a dent in their faith in these experts to whom they have given their brains over to. Besides crashing individual and national economies throughout the world, another devastating result of this campaign has been that it has turned neighbors against one another, and even families against one another. Hotlines have been set up for the purpose of snitching on anyone who is not following the rules, and people consider it to be their civic duty to turn in people and businesses who are not following the rules, as they understand them. In many cases, throughout the country, we have incidences of people who have driven around town looking for violators who they can turn in. Rewards aren't even necessary since people take pride in turning in their neighbors. As I was walking along the sidewalk the other day, even here in Millinocket, some woman felt the need to yell something at me about wearing a mask, calling me an idiot. I told her to wear a muzzle, but I doubt she heard me. She probably called the police, but I don't know of anyone who has seen any of our cops since the shutdown began. We only have one cop on duty at a time but still, it's a small town, and we usually see the car drive by every now and then. Like many other cases that I have read in the newspaper, this woman doesn't even understand the rule that she seems to be obsessed with. In Maine, we are only supposed to wear a mask when we can reasonably expect to be unable to maintain a distance of six feet or more from other people. Since I was the only person walking along the sidewalk on that day, a mask would not have been indicated. People call the police to report violations that aren't even violations and, too often, the responding police officers feel compelled to enforce this misunderstanding of the rule. For example, the man who was playing stickball with his daughter in the park. He was arrested, despite the fact that the posted rule was against four or more people being together. Until the three cops showed up, there were only three and, being family, they would be together anyhow, inside or outside. In our grocery store, while store employees aren't enforcing the stupid mask rule, and only about half of shoppers are wearing a mask, those who are wearing a mask are sometimes furious with those who are not. Mask or not, we know who they are, and the rudeness is not going to be so easily forgotten after all this nonsense is over with. For one thing, if you are going to lower your mask so that you can scold someone for not wearing a mask, you don't get the point. So, you're not only rude, but you're an idiot too, and that's kind of hard to forget. Hundreds of people in Missouri, I think it was, were outed recently when it turned out that the records of their coronavirus hotline reports were not exempt from FOIA laws, and their reports and names were posted to Facebook. Now, these people are afraid of repercussions. Well, maybe they should have thought of that before they picked up the phone. They didn't care about the repercussions to the people they were snitching on. That's my opinion. However, given that I am not an expert, here's a similar opinion that must be far more credible because it has been published in the Sun Journal.
As for us, wife and I, we would never/ever confront someone about not wearing a mask. People have been shot/killed doing just that! Calling the P.D. about someone not wearing a mask, or doing anything else against the Guidelines...…….absolutely no way! The way we feel about this is that it's entirely up to the person/persons what they don't do. These people would be strangers, and right now, there are many strangers that won't put up with someone telling them something. If they don't want to listen to law enforcement, they surely aren't going to listen to anyone else! We will go about our business/shopping and leave others alone.
Ken I never know who to believe anymore. I do know this Pandemic thing is out of control in many ways. As said before... I wear a mask on rate occasion I am around others because my health makes me high risk. Otherwise like most other things I deal with.. I don't care what you do. Just do it on your side of the street
I don't mind if people wear masks. It may even be a good idea for some people to wear masks, or for people wear masks in certain situations. It's the obsessive idea that everyone has to wear a mask or everyone is going to die that annoys me, and mandates for the wearing of a mask scares me because it's so wrong, particularly since this is being done despite the fact almost no one uses a mask that would be effective against a virus and people are being told that they have to wear a mask despite the fact that they don't have a clue as to how to use one effectively. Mostly, it bothers me that people are being encouraged to believe that they are saving the world through their masks.