Aggressive anti-maskers make it less fun to go out and do stuff so swathes of us are staying in more than we would

[ChavvySexPond]

All I seem to hear about these days is people who don't follow the masking and social distancing rules and how it makes going out so much more stressful and how people who would like to go out more are staying in more instead?

AIBU to think aggressive anti-maskers and anti-social distancing covid deniers make being out in the world even worse than it has to be in the time of Covid?

“ I'll do whatever I can”

Whatever you can

Maybe other people can’t do as much as you, and have good reasons for that. It’s a constant source of amazement to me that some people want to blame and shame others in this way, and can’t understand that people have different circumstances. Oh I know you’ll come out with something about exemptions and not meaning those people, but really, I bet you don’t care if you make them feel shitty too, and those aren’t the only people I’m talking about either

I feel like I have a different experience to other people when I go out. I hardly see people not wearing masks and 99% of people are following the guidelines. But then I speak to other people who say things like ‘no one is taking this seriously!’ And I think do we go to different places? Or see different things? My BIL is very aggressive about this and seems to be able to point out the 1 person in a whole town with no mask on whereas I am looking around thinking oh, everyone I can see has a mask!
I’ve also only come across 1 person who stood too close to me and I just moved away. No one has been rude to me either

Some people really should get themselves over to fan fiction sites, they're in the wrong job here.

I went to a supermarket the other day in a slightly more deprived area and there were far too many people not wearing face coverings. I felt very uncomfortable. Anything to help stop those droplets from coming out will do even a scarf. It’s very selfish not to

Well here is my take on that..................

I wear one but hate it. Im really starting to resent it though because some of the ones ive seen on here who are really gung ho about masks and banging on about how we are all in it together have spent the past ten years voting for the opposite. Along comes Covid and their want for individualism goes out of the window.
Having seen their attitudes to single parents, disabled people , social housing tenants over the years i cant help getting a distinct whiff of people in these groups being expected to wear masks to protect their "betters"

One of the most gung ho about it was absolutely incredulous when i suggested low income families should get them for free.

"You think people should get them for free?! she replied. Yep all in this together eh! hmm

Tells you all you need to know.
People were being told to make masks out of old socks.

Meanwhile the construction industry are allowed to carry on as normal ( its just taken ELEVEN weeks to do a roof renewal here which was hell and included a visit from the fire brigade but hey we are only tenants) and the workmen have a tiny site office on our estate No masks in sight. They have also been using our corner shop.

So yes i wear a mask But am really starting to resent it when i know others wouldnt give me the steam off their piss if i was sat homeless in the street yet want me to wear a mask to protect those others!

I don’t really care if people do or don’t wear masks. I am avoiding shops as I hate wearing one (but do if I have to).

I have seen lots of bad mask wearing - under nose, under chin, taking it off to speak to cashier, taking it down to sneeze!, constant fiddling...but then as mine is just dumped somewhere in my car between wears, I’m just as bad.

Do you have as much ire for those who kept going on ski trips after the fact @ParlezVousWronglais Or is it just poorer people who didnt bring the virus in in the first place

@Shepherdspyreads

Are you hearing about this (from here?) or seeing it yourself? Where I am pretty much everyone is compliant with mask wearing & social distancing.

I’ve seen it. Yesterday some mask refuser coughed on me when I got in between her and my elderly mum, who she was all but touching anyway.

I work in construction and I can honestly say I have not seen a single construction worker wear a mask since March, nor observe any form of distancing. It doesn’t bother me and they are outside for a lot of the time. But I do wonder if they are not bothering in shops too.

Louis The thing is if there is a lockdown here it wont neccessarily be down to the tenants.

My local High Street (Naice area) everyone is wearing a mask in the shops, most even wear them in the street.

Brighton, much the same really, bit more cheating, i.e. nose uncovered when security aren't looking or person thinks they're out of sight in shop.

London, about 50% not bothering with masks or social distancing in shops. Now I realise that some medical conditions mean you're exempt, but 50%, really?!

YANBU.
Luckily far fewer masks around these days. I think shops have caught in that if they want people to spend money better not to be zealous, and the mask Stasi are the penny pinching mean spirited types who are better off without.

In my area it’s hardly anyone wears one on the street, maybe 80% on public transport, and 50% in shops. But that depends. I’ve been on trains at were a huge group has gotten on and none of them have been wearing masks. I wouldn’t challenge anyone but come on, the likelihood that every single one of a group of 15 teenagers has a serious condition is remote.

And aggressive “anti-maskers” do exist, they are less common and less vocal in certain areas (not so common in the UK for example) but they do exist. One of my close friends lives in Tennessee and it’s not unusual at all to be verbally abused and confronted for wearing a mask. Why are people so determined to deny that these people exist? The protest proves that they do exist and that they exist in this country.

the mask Stasi are the penny pinching mean spirited types who are better off without.

Jesus Christ. So sorry I don’t want to die of my complex serious pre-existing conditions that make me extremely medically vulnerable.

Like this you mean.............
twitter.com/naijagyaldee/status/1290212852310016000?s=20&fbclid=IwAR3k2RJb0-QxKY9TEjY1glCYnGEllxSaFbT7NlekZcXTHI1PP1FsW_gYwJs

My town seems pretty compliant.

Other than local teens who seem to think going into coop in groups of 5/6 on a others when there's 2 spaces and yelling across the shop at each other. And I think deliberately trying to intimidate - I don't get why they come and stand shoulder to shoulder with the person lying if this isn't their intent? (They didn't before they'd wait in queue line that is still there!

Ds and I went to theme park the other day. Everyone pretty compliant there and was impressed on the whole with SD in queues despite it not being easy.

Stopped at really popular service station afterwards to get ds some dinner to eat in car. Inside they had it all set up really well.

It's the first time though I have seen whole families without masks, or groups travelling together all without masks.

I can't say it made me want to leave or even care that much. Ds and I just moved away and waited by others in masks.

But it's definitely the first time I've seen what I've heard discussed on MN.

Although in theme park the ride attendant asked person behind us to come and hand their card in over our heads when they were sd. Then asked (exempt and wearing lanyard ds) if he had a mask 🤦🏼‍♀️

@MrBucket

“ I'll do whatever I can”

Whatever you can

Maybe other people can’t do as much as you, and have good reasons for that. It’s a constant source of amazement to me that some people want to blame and shame others in this way, and can’t understand that people have different circumstances. Oh I know you’ll come out with something about exemptions and not meaning those people, but really, I bet you don’t care if you make them feel shitty too, and those aren’t the only people I’m talking about either

If someone is doing whatever they can and not going out of their way to be as difficult as possible then - clearly - I'm not talking about them.

@rainwaterflow

In my area it’s hardly anyone wears one on the street, maybe 80% on public transport, and 50% in shops. But that depends. I’ve been on trains at were a huge group has gotten on and none of them have been wearing masks. I wouldn’t challenge anyone but come on, the likelihood that every single one of a group of 15 teenagers has a serious condition is remote.

And aggressive “anti-maskers” do exist, they are less common and less vocal in certain areas (not so common in the UK for example) but they do exist. One of my close friends lives in Tennessee and it’s not unusual at all to be verbally abused and confronted for wearing a mask. Why are people so determined to deny that these people exist? The protest proves that they do exist and that they exist in this country.

My friend was harangued for wearing a mask "by a man who looked like Denis Thatcher" in the New Forest at the weekend.

It doesn't happen a great deal around here but whenever anyone I know goes off to visit family they seem to stand a pretty good chance of being abused about wearing a mask.

@Whitneylilyrose

I'm extemp and I won't expose why, if someone confronted me I would be insulting them.

I don't need to disclose my medical history to a stranger. This is the same with disabled spaces which I get looks due to not being in a wheelchair.

Why insulting? They have a right to talk to you, sure you have the right to ignore them, but surely its just as easy to say "i'm exempt"

It doesn't happen a great deal around here but whenever anyone I know goes off to visit family they seem to stand a pretty good chance of being abused about wearing a mask

Where do these family live?
Honestly I know a fair number of people. I have lived all over the country and have friends in all those places. I don’t know anyone who has been abused for not wearing a mask.

Like this you mean.............

Probably more like this:
twitter.com/tonyysays/status/1224801488956002305?s=21

Or this

metro.co.uk/2020/08/12/anti-mask-ranter-carried-shop-son-throwing-tantrum-13119029/amp/

I wish both sides claiming that they’ve never heard of someone being abused for wearing a mask/not wearing a mask would shut up and stop dismissing other people’s experiences.

Mask wearing has become hugely politicised, and a huge part of that is the far right/conspiracy theorists trying to weaponise the idea of masks, and the politicisation of masks is inherently linked with ableism. Throughout this entire pandemic disabled and medically vulnerable people have been scapegoated, and they are being used as a weapon now by both sides.

Of course it’s true that some people are medically exempt, but there are plenty of perfectly healthy non-exempt people exploiting the idea of exemptions for their own political ideology. And plenty of people who are furious because they believe that lockdown and mask rules are an infringement on their civil liberties and if only all those awful elderly and vulnerable people would just have the decency to die/lock themselves indoors forever the rest of us wouldn’t have to suffer.

It’s appalling, and both sides (the fervent pro-maskers who attack people for not wearing masks and pooh pooh the idea of exemptions, and the fervent anti-maskers who attack people for wearing masks and abuse disabled rights for their own ends) are total arseholes.

Not dismissing OP’s experience, just wondering where these areas are that people are so anti mask.

Plenty of them in London.

(And of course in other countries.)

Even within London levels of mask wearing differs a lot. I was in Hackney last week and was the only person on the crowded bus wearing a mask.

I don’t think it’s always a political stance - when people talk about large groups of teenagers not wearing masks they aren’t usually far right groups, they aren’t being aggressive or bothering anyone, they just don’t want to wear masks

I have seen groups like that - but I haven’t encountered the far-right political ones (though I can see they exist from the news), but I would be surprised if I did encounter any overtly political extremism in a small village in the Home Counties. On Mumsnet all the aggression I have seen has come from those who think that exemptions shouldn’t exist.

You’re definitely right that there’s a difference between non-mask wearers (due to laziness or not caring or not paying attention) and anti-maskers who actively want others not to wear masks either.

Mumsnet is weird in that threads tend to go in very definite directions depending on the first few posts. You see it even in innocuous threads about food or MIL problems, someone will post a thread and the thread will be very firmly of opinion A, then someone else will post an identical thread a week later and the opinion will he firmly opinion B. Just depends who gets there first and who dominates. There are plenty of threads that are anti-exemption and super pro-mask but there are also plenty of threads full of ranting about “muzzles” and how masks don’t do anything and only brainwashed sheep wear them.