Losing the Mask Debate Was Hard, Living With It Will Be Even Harder
The trick is to avoid feeling persecuted about it
I had my first mask confrontation recently, which was too bad because I had hoped to never have one. Mask-wearing has become such a tribal thing, we have let it become such a tribal thing, that confronting people over it is pointless.
If I learned anything from interviewing conspiracy-theory believers over the last couple of years, it is that the line between belief and identity has merged for so many people. Too many people.
I had the privilege(?) of growing up in a “mixed” household. My mother supported the Republican Party and my father supported the Democrats. We can make fun of the Boomers all we want, but name another generation since where it’s common for the husband and wife to be polar political opposites.
There certainly wasn’t less at stake, but my generation was likely among the last to see a world where how you voted wasn’t reducible to who you were.
