Would you comment on a non-mask wearer when in public?

[92miles]

If you passed a fit young person coming into a busy venue as you were exiting, and that person wasn't wearing a mask, would you say anything to them?

I wouldn't because you've got no way of knowing if that person is exempt. It is also possible the person does have a mask and had simply forgotten to slip it on. I think they will pretty soon notice others wearing masks and it will remind them if that's the case.

I've witnessed other people making comments to non mask wearers when in public though.

@BritWifeInUSA @FlowerArranger

So where you live, people who can't wear masks are excluded from work, education, health care, etc? How dreadful. Deepest commiserations for living somewhere that bars disabled people/those with health conditions from living a normal life. It must be absolutely awful living somewhere so discriminatory

Not that I say anything I would add!

@OldHip

Half the UK seems to be frigging exempt so it would be time consuming to challenge them all, plus it's fucking boring listening to the dullards droning on about whatever the fuck they reckon is wrong with them, so, no.

Sorry that people with disabilities/health conditions are so 'fucking boring' to you.

Not half as boring as ableist wallies droning on about how selfish mask exempt people are though, I guarantee it.

No - I wouldn’t say anything. And I feel very sorry for anyone who has a genuine exemption.

Petrol station last night had 3 unmasked men who drove either a delivery van or construction van. I don’t like stereotyping or making assumptions, but a lot of males who work in those industries appear to have exemptions?

I only get annoyed when non mask wearers don’t social distance from me in the supermarket - I just stand away.

But - when mask wearing became mandatory again, I felt very, very reassured that people took heed.

So it’s heartwarming to see that people do care, so I try to focus on this more, than annoyance with people who don’t.

Absolutely bonkers that a year and a half after masks became A Thing, we're still seeing threads (and attitudes) like this.

Heartening to see however that compared to this time last year, there are many, many more understanding posters and they hugely outnumber the 'no such thing as exemptions in my country'/'no mask = selfish dickhead' types.

If you can't wear a mask simple things like going to a medical appointment, getting on a bus or going to work can be really, really distressing. Those of us who have been subjected to abuse (and physical attacks in some cases, as reported in the media last year) have been scared to leave our homes for even the most essential reasons.

Please remember that you don't know if someone is genuinely exempt or not. That person you give a 'hard stare' () to, or challenge, or tut at, may be a survivor of DV or rape. They may already be living with a crippling condition which makes life pretty shit and going out difficult. The point is, you do not know.

If you're happy being the sort of person who is abusive or judgemental towards disabled people or those living with trauma or painful health conditions, that says far more about you than an unmasked stranger. Contrary to how you see yourself, you are not caring and kind and compassionate. You are an ableist, abusive dickhead.

*not more than happy

@TheVampiresWife

Or are some weaponising mental health? Are we teaching society to lack resilience - therefore a great many people are citing mental health as a reason to not wear a mask? If seat belt wearing was introduced in 2022, would a great many people be exempt due to mental health reasons - and is that right?

There are quite a few articles on this subject, extract below:

Young people leaving home for the first time are prone to isolation and despair, but the answer is not to wrap them in cotton wool. In their book The Coddling of the American Mind, Lukianoff and Haidt (2018) argue that we are reaping what is sown by risk-averse parenting and schooling. They describe three myths that have been nurtured by Western education:
Untruth of fragility: the idea that bad experiences make us weaker
Untruth of emotional reasoning: young people are taught to always trust their feelings
Untruth of them versus us: the world is a battle of good people against evil people

I’m not saying I agree BTW.

@Iamthewombat

Lots of smokers have breathing problems- they do after all cause them.

Read the thread again and concentrate really hard. Really try.

Yes, smoking causes breathing problems. Self inflicted breathing problems.

Is it reasonable for somebody who has inflicted breathing problems on themselves to put a 90 year old woman at risk of infection by (1) not wearing a mask because of some spurious notion of medical exemption and (2) standing right next to the 90 year old woman in a spacious shop, reaching across her and coughing on her?

This, when the law requires mask wearing in shops, when social distancing is requested in shops, both on signs and on regular announcements, and when the 90 year old lady, who was herself wearing a mask, couldn’t easily move away from the selfish coughing woman?

If you are going to behave like that, and whine, when challenged, that you “can’t breathe in a mask”, then start puffing on a fag minutes later, you don’t have a leg to stand on.

Although some of the odder posters on here seem to think that the perceived rights of the selfish maskless cougher trump those of the old lady, who apparently “isn’t owed social distancing”. I sense the presence of professional victims on this thread.

This is a foolish post.

You stated that you don't believe the woman was exempt, and took exception to it being pointed out that you were basing this on fuck all. You then drip fed the outside smoke as evidence that she wasn't exempt, which is clearly nonsensical. And you're now trying to turn this into a 'leg to stand on' discussion rather than admit that you still have no idea whether she was exempt or not. Because you don't. You invented her non-exemption, because you didn't like having to share the space with her, and you're the one without a leg to stand on.

[quote Beadebaser]@TheVampiresWife

Or are some weaponising mental health? Are we teaching society to lack resilience - therefore a great many people are citing mental health as a reason to not wear a mask? If seat belt wearing was introduced in 2022, would a great many people be exempt due to mental health reasons - and is that right?

There are quite a few articles on this subject, extract below:

Young people leaving home for the first time are prone to isolation and despair, but the answer is not to wrap them in cotton wool. In their book The Coddling of the American Mind, Lukianoff and Haidt (2018) argue that we are reaping what is sown by risk-averse parenting and schooling. They describe three myths that have been nurtured by Western education:
Untruth of fragility: the idea that bad experiences make us weaker
Untruth of emotional reasoning: young people are taught to always trust their feelings
Untruth of them versus us: the world is a battle of good people against evil people

I’m not saying I agree BTW.[/quote]
Where someone has been gagged during a sexual assault, for example, I don't think resilience comes into it. It's a bit like saying people should be more resilient to cancer or heart attacks. PTSD is very, very real to those living with it, as real as any other health condition.

Also I take issue with the idea that young people lack resilience. They've lived through a financial crash, recession, the threat of international terrorism, knowing they'll likely never be able to afford to own a home, climate change (with worse to come), the rise of some seriously dodgy politics, Brexit and now a pandemic.

@CarrieBlue

I’ll give hard stares to whoever I like. I’m more than happy to be the type of person who is sick of doing the right thing whilst surrounded by those who ‘can’t’ wear a mask for a few minutes. The whole ‘voluntary’ nature of restrictions is why we are still dealing with this two years on.

No, the reason we're still dealing with this two years on is that there's a highly transmissible virus at large. You'll notice that even the countries where there are (apparently) no mask exemptions are also still dealing with this two years on.

It's not the fault of a rape survivor/TN sufferer in Sainsbury's who absolutely cannot wear a mask for five seconds, let alone five minutes.

Blaming disabled people for a continuing pandemic is one of the nuttiest things I've seen on here, and that's really saying something.

I do wonder how people who think if we'd just got the correct rules here we'd all be fine now square that with Omicron.

I'm newly diagnosed with asthma and although I do really struggle to breathe comfortably with a mask on, I daren't take it off because of the horrible looks and sarcastic comments. People are so judgemental as this thread shows.

@TheVampiresWife

However rubbish life is now, I don’t think - say 50/100 years ago - society would have been faced with significantly less trauma and require less resilience.

I absolutely DO think that if seatbelt wearing was brought in 2022 there would be a huge backlash, and people citing PTSD experiences as a reason not to wear one - it’s simply the fact that it’s now ingrained in our culture for many years, that people accept it. We wouldn’t be inclined to teach our children that they have a choice to wear a seat belt.

So is that right that society are more inclined to reject seatbelt wearing - if it was introduced as a new measure in 2022? Is it good that society is moving in that direction?

I don’t know. I’m torn. Obviously the reason you’ve given is incredibly traumatic. It would very much be an exemption. But that is an extreme example. To what extent do others potentially weaponise mental health when they perhaps COULD show resilience?

no - i did once, and regretted it - got rather a lot of agro

my dm does which is embarrassing.

Sorry that people with disabilities/health conditions are so 'fucking boring' to you.

Not half as boring as ableist wallies droning on about how selfish mask exempt people are though, I guarantee it.

Well said.

[quote TheVampiresWife]**@BritWifeInUSA* @FlowerArranger*

So where you live, people who can't wear masks are excluded from work, education, health care, etc? How dreadful. Deepest commiserations for living somewhere that bars disabled people/those with health conditions from living a normal life. It must be absolutely awful living somewhere so discriminatory [/quote]
Eh, no. Because there really is no such thing as being unable to wear a mask, unless someone is seriously mentally or physically incapacitated. People who don't want to wear a mask are just selfish and don't give a toss about endangering others.

My little granddaughter manages to wear a mask throughout the school day, as do all her classmates, and the teachers, and the caretakers...... and everyone else. Strangely there have been no protests or calls from excemptions. People manage. If you dont wear a mask, you are not allowed to enter a store, restaurant, et cetera. And no, it's not China...

Surely is it possible to find some middle ground between hardly anyone wearing a mask on some lines of the Tube- or wearing them on their chins- and denouncing all non-mask wearers as selfish.

@FlowerArranger

Because there really is no such thing as being unable to wear a mask, unless someone is seriously mentally or physically incapacitated

So essentially what you're saying is, 'There's no such thing as being unable to wear a mask unless you're unable to wear a mask'.

Which of course, is true. Thank you for conceding as much.

Again, commiserations on living in a country where disabled people are barred from work, education, healthcare, etc. You say 'people manage' - what you mean is, able bodied people manage. Our government in the UK is abysmal but at least they recognise the rights of disabled people/those living with health conditions to be able to access the same employment/educational/healthcare opportunities that able bodied people do.

Sorry again that the government where you live does not. I hope you're never in a situation where their discrimination affects you or your loved ones.

I do not notice non-mask wearers as I'm
Not sad enough to be looking

@JanisMoplin

Surely is it possible to find some middle ground between hardly anyone wearing a mask on some lines of the Tube- or wearing them on their chins- and denouncing all non-mask wearers as selfish.

Well I've never understood wearing them on your chin, I must admit.

But otherwise, the difficulty is that while we know, because some people have told us, that there are people who aren't wearing masks but are not legally exempt, and we have probably all encountered situations where the number and concentration of exempt people is statistically unlikely... there's still no way to tell from looking whether a particular maskless individual is exempt. However much people might like there to be, or delude themselves that they can tell.

And we all know full well exactly which maskless people are going to be on the receiving end of vigilante disapproval and harassment. The easy targets. The people proudly telling us about the hard stares and dirty looks they give out aren't going to be doing it to maskless people who they think are going to retaliate. No doubt somebody will come and claim they have/would, but that's bollocks. If you think there's a decent chance your tut will get you punched in the face, fear will curb it. No, it'll be the easier targets.

In England you are exempt if the mask causes you "severe distress". I am probably in that category and wish we could go back to voluntary masks in shops as it is hard for me to wear a mask. I certainly wouldn't comment on people not wearing one as I am against the mask laws.

This is a case of the can't-be-arsed/anti-mask brigade making things difficult for the genuinely exempt.

@ArblemarzipanTFruitcake

This is a case of the can't-be-arsed/anti-mask brigade making things difficult for the genuinely exempt.

Hmmm, up to a point. But the reality is that there were always going to be some people who were entirely unsympathetic to the concept of exemption, some who wouldn't understand it and still others who just like bullying people and weren't going to turn down the chance.