Agreed. I would just inch masks' ability to limit viral-vector spread a minute bit higher to include the occasional random spittle we're all so horrified to notice that we spew out on each other while speaking. Still, that would pretty much only constitute a viral-spread issue while the spittler was symptomatic, but I could see a tiny window existing for infection by spittle spewing in the brief period before any percussive snot explosions manage to register as exceeding the normal baseline (especially for those accustomed to enduring seasonal allergies.)
Could that in any way justify perpetual masking? Of course not, since humans have been randomly spittling on each other throughout our evolution! At certain stages we were even supplementing our protein intake by eating blood-gorged bugs off of each other, so we do appear to be a fairly resilient species.
As for forced-masking, that was never anything but a self-soothing attempt by TPTB to tell themselves through visual metaphor that they had succeeded in muzzling all dissent. Double masking was then doubly self-soothing by pantomiming double the muzzling. Those desperately mewled-about and grasped-at temporary pacifiers ended up costing TPTB much more of their real-world ability to manage dissent than they had ever bargained on.
In Kübler-Ross's stages of grief (over rapidly becoming The Powers That Had Been,) that bargaining would naturally follow after working through the anger of a mighty tantrum of derangement, and would naturally precede a much-needed depression (allowing the rest of us to finally breathe a much-needed sigh of relief!) So much of the recent craziness we've been living through (Covid hysteria cult, NATO suicide by Ukraine, WEF reset wetdreams, Trump derangement syndrome, etc.) makes quite a bit more sense when simply viewed as failed attempts by TPT(H)B to bargain away overwhelming grief.
I wonder if TPT(H)B could get some kind of group discount on grief counseling... because they are certainly going to need a lot of it! Always from credentialed experts, of course, the only ones they would ever deem safe enough to entrust their fragile psyches over to. Alas, that ends up sounding less like therapy to me and more like a TPT(H)B circle jerk... with a discount coupon, no less! What other sufferings and deprivations might the impoverished wealthy soon have to endure? No more private jets to Burning Man? How ever will they survive?
Re: Masking as an informed, individual choice
Could that in any way justify perpetual masking? Of course not, since humans have been randomly spittling on each other throughout our evolution! At certain stages we were even supplementing our protein intake by eating blood-gorged bugs off of each other, so we do appear to be a fairly resilient species.
As for forced-masking, that was never anything but a self-soothing attempt by TPTB to tell themselves through visual metaphor that they had succeeded in muzzling all dissent. Double masking was then doubly self-soothing by pantomiming double the muzzling. Those desperately mewled-about and grasped-at temporary pacifiers ended up costing TPTB much more of their real-world ability to manage dissent than they had ever bargained on.
In Kübler-Ross's stages of grief (over rapidly becoming The Powers That Had Been,) that bargaining would naturally follow after working through the anger of a mighty tantrum of derangement, and would naturally precede a much-needed depression (allowing the rest of us to finally breathe a much-needed sigh of relief!) So much of the recent craziness we've been living through (Covid hysteria cult, NATO suicide by Ukraine, WEF reset wetdreams, Trump derangement syndrome, etc.) makes quite a bit more sense when simply viewed as failed attempts by TPT(H)B to bargain away overwhelming grief.
I wonder if TPT(H)B could get some kind of group discount on grief counseling... because they are certainly going to need a lot of it! Always from credentialed experts, of course, the only ones they would ever deem safe enough to entrust their fragile psyches over to. Alas, that ends up sounding less like therapy to me and more like a TPT(H)B circle jerk... with a discount coupon, no less! What other sufferings and deprivations might the impoverished wealthy soon have to endure? No more private jets to Burning Man? How ever will they survive?
— Christophe