We could go back into the archives and pull up videos of literal mobs forming in grocery stores around a person who wasn’t wearing a mask, or videos of women being stalked around a craft store threateningly because they weren’t wearing a mask. Things got ugly.
Novelist Celeste Ng has seen a few pieces arguing against masking and she has a theory: People deep down inside feel so guilty about not wearing a mask they want everybody to stop wearing a mask so they don’t feel as guilty.
What I’m getting from these “just stop masking!” pieces is that deep down, some people feel so guilty about not masking that they’d like everyone to stop… so they can stop feeing guilty. 🤔
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) December 29, 2022
— CanLen 🕙 (@CandiceLen) December 29, 2022
Yes, deep down the Grandma Killers/terrorists must feel tremendous guilt over not masking. https://t.co/wftGaLRcdh
— 🫃🏼🇺🇦💉Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) December 29, 2022
Recommended
That’s some wild and inaccurate projection you have there. but creative haha
— transcend_duality (@transcendduali1) December 29, 2022
I feel guilty I didn’t mock you earlier in 2020.
— Stinson Norwood (@snorman1776) December 29, 2022
Nope.
— TweetyBurg (@nivratsmom) December 29, 2022
I was relieved to read your bio. Fiction writer indeed.
— Meredith (@Opportunitweet) December 29, 2022
I genuinely don't care if people want to wear masks, but I wish you guys would extend the same courtesy to those of us who prefer not to wear them instead of making these tedious psychological arguments about how we secretly know your sartorial choices are the most moral
— Madame Sosostris (@causamdicere) December 29, 2022
or maybe people don't like being forced to do something that goes against both science and common sense?
— GayLumberjack (@gay_lumberjack) December 29, 2022
No. We are just done with the theater. We sleep just fine at night and feel no guilt whatsoever
— Sleepy C (@C16Sleepy) December 29, 2022
LOL, nope. We aren’t masking because they don’t work and they are dehumanizing.
— Kevin – Classical Liberal 🇺🇸 (@gov_fails) December 29, 2022
Guilty? 😄. I look at people wearing masks and laugh at the thought that 200 years from now people will be baffled by how we could think that such a device would prevent viral transmissions.
— Wade Miller (@WadeMiller_USMC) December 29, 2022
I mostly feel guilty that I spent money on your books.
— Daniela (@daniela127) December 29, 2022
No one who is not masking feels guilty about it
— Cheryl 👩🏼💻🇺🇸 #GoDawgs (@ShadowShook) December 29, 2022
No guilt. None.
— Jen Long🪳 (@JenLong1975) December 29, 2022
I don't feel guilty at all. I am proudly modeling normal behavior in a post-vaccine world after taking extreme precautions before the vaccine. I advocate against a greatly flawed and unreliable intervention that was just supposed to be a stop-gap when we had nothing else.
— AngryCat ❄️😿 (@HermionesFury) December 29, 2022
I feel zero guilt for never wearing one.
— MimiLisa 2.0 (@69MimiLisa) December 29, 2022
I laughed at this take harder than a laugh at branch covidians still wearing masks.
— Greenbrier (@greenbrier_n) December 30, 2022
The replies are pretty incredible — they’re about 50/50, with half posting “bullseye” emoji or tweeting “that’s exactly right.” It takes some serious projection to assume that someone else feels guilt deep down about not wearing a mask. And then there are the handful who say they’re never going to stop masking — they haven’t caught so much as a cold and aren’t about to.
So what about the people who assume non-maskers secretly feel guilty — what assumptions could we make about them and their continued reliance on masks coming up on 2023?
***
Related:
Dr. Leana Wen tells CNN that ‘cloth masks are little more than facial decoration’ https://t.co/0urNl4QR0L
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 21, 2021
