Tw: discussion of ableism and reaallllyyyy brief mention of death/discussion of death
Also I’m genuinely sorry if this comes off as, rude, insensitive, privileged! I’m asking this question bc if I’m wrong I want to know so I can grow and become a better person.
Please read all the way through before commenting, thank you.
I have a sort of conundrum, and I want y’alls opinion. I’ve seen discussions online of people saying that they believe that everyone should wear a mask at all times around other people unless it is an emergency bc if u don’t it will spread long covid. Then they’ll go onto say that people who don’t wear masks everytime they are in public are ableist and are killing people! (Ik they don’t mean it as in killing people intentionally but still- WHAT?!) And I recently saw this but added on was like “these people say they’re leftist but they don’t wear masks in public if they’re not sick, which means they are putting vulnerable people at risk of fatal disease!” And these points come from creators I trust, but I refuse to blindly agree with someone and how many people are THAT vulnerable, that if i go onto the street without a mask I could give someone a fatal disease? Obviously it could happen, but how likely is it? We all carry germs no matter what. I personally would rather not wear a mask every time I’m out, when I’m sick I stay home, and I’ll wear a mask if i have to go in public when i’m unwell, but unless I or another person is sick, or I’m in a very large crowd, I don’t wear a mask in public.
I have sensory issues, masks drive me crazy (the argument for wearing a mask in this case is people saying just do it anyways, you’ll get used to it. But why would I put myself through torture if it’s not necessary?)
I have small air ways and was born premature and the mask air gets stale (rebuttal was take a break when you really need to. Whenever I wear a mask I have to take a lot of moments to step away to take it off bc i feel like I’m suffocating, if i had to do this all day I would lose my mind)
Similar to the last one is that the air isn’t fresh, and probably isn’t healthy to breathe in all the time, secondly covid rates as well as most diseases seem to be mostly steady now, and the majority of individuals remain healthy. (This is where minorities are brought up, as well as the discussion of ableism, and while I can see the reasoning it still doesn’t make full sense to me…)
I do see the benefits and I understand the stance, to a degree! I think that it if you are not sick or haven’t been exposed to someone who was sick you have every right to walk around mask-free, just like u have every right to mask in the same circumstances! Also wth are we saying if u don’t feel like masking when ur not sick that you’re spreading long covid and killing people by default, is that not insane?! Like yes it’s happened before, and will happen again, but what is the actual rate of that? How often does that actually happen? It seems so excessive to me, and pretty black and white thinking imo, even when acknowledging the difficulties of masking in public 24/7 like with sensory issues you’re being told to disregard it! Why are we so focused on this and not the actual health care system and the idiots who run it?
“But they got rid of the mask mandates bc they want to kill vulnerable people” (disabled and impoverished people)
I can see that, but at the same time why is me not masking equal to unintended murder and not doing my part?? I advocate for these people in other ways, and if someone asked me to where a mask around them I would say yes, or I would leave!
Ik I sound like a broken record but, shouldn’t people have a choice in masking if they aren’t actively a risk of getting another actually ill? There are events where masks are mandatory, and if they’re not u are more than welcome to put one on, masking is rarely discouraged.
I ofc always believe and will fight for an equal and accessible world for EVERYONE! But I don’t think I could ever fully get behind this masking-in-public-all-the-time thing, i think there are better more effective ways of keeping people healthy, like making health care free and unbiased (there are way too many racist doctors and nurses that need to be fired), we need to stop polluting our planet - the people most effected by this are poc and disabled people who live in redlined areas that are next to commercial farms, powerplants, and ai databases! We need to stop myths about medication like Tylenol causing autism, and other misinformation on medicine and disabled individuals themselves, we need to have affordable housing, safe, and accessible housing, we need to have better agriculture and water systems that actually produce healthy, clean food on farms that don’t disrupt nature, and water that isn’t polluted, as well as access to actually affordable organic, natural produce. All of these things will keep people much more healthier, and less at risk of serious conditions, meaning less need for masks! As a bonus we will also keep people physically safer, like with easy access to affordable, usable shelter!
Ik it’s better to start small, and if u want to mask all the time, by all means go ahead, if masks didn’t make me so uncomfortable I would be more willing, (but even then I’d still believe people should have a choice) but I’m not discouraging others from doing differently than I do either, I truly don’t think it’s wrong or a crime to wear a mask in public if you are healthy and just want to be super vigilant of others. It’s just that I don’t want to.
Does that make me ableist?