Lately I’ve been running into an odd sort of duck, and today it happened again, and now I am wondering if it’s a thing. These are people who argue online or in person that covid is vastly exaggerated, or that masks don’t work, and maybe that it’s a conspiracy against Trump, but who also practice safe Covid behaviors.
This latest example for me is someone I know who on Facebook is inevitably the person who posts all the conspiracy theories, whether it’s masks, or how other countries behave, or how all but 6% of the numbers are fake, etc. He and I serve on a local charity board, and when somebody proposed a meeting today, he was the first person to say “can we make this a Zoom meeting, I don’t understand why we wouldn’t want this to be safe.” It was the weirdest thing.
I also have a family member who thinks it’s a huge conspiracy, but who uses hand sanitizer all the time, and wears a mask.
I don’t know anyone like this, I doubt most people do, and the reason why is that there was not effective pro-mask propaganda directed at this demographic. When trying to sell people on idea, different groups of people and their idiosyncrasies need to be considered and the message needs to be tailored to them. The major health organizations could have made a series of videos spinning the whole thing as a deliberate bio-warfare attack by China to try to bring down the United States’ economy and make us all subservient to China, and imply that it’s part of a larger “globalist” conspiracy, and that the best way to prevent George Soros from jamming his eltritch tentacles down your throat was to wear a mask at all times, and not only would pro-Trump people be wearing masks, Trump himself would probably be re-tweeting the goddamn video.
I think people are more likely to leave their batshit leanings they post on facebook on facebook. They’re in their echo chambers liking and commenting on like-minded individuals across the internet. Turn off the wifi and get outside in the real world then everything changes. You don’t have your anonymity anymore. Bob next door, the families in the park, the people in the supermarket … they are oblivious to your personal leanings as are you to theirs. One of them might have the exact same stance but is not going to publicly show it because you don’t want to be the guy who is the odd one out.
As I’ve mentioned in another thread I know a nurse that fits this description. Second-hand only, she’s a relative of a friend of mine and though I’ve hung out with her a couple of times she lives in another state and I haven’t seen/talked to her in years. She apparently masks up to be a professional and not upset clients, but thinks COVID-19 is just a bunch of hooey. And she has declared herself a Trump supporter, despite typically being a bit apathetic about politics.
I honestly think he might be a bit of a chameleon, without a real backbone. So he just goes with whatever the mood is, but is mostly exposed to right wing horseshit.
I had a little bit of a dust-up with a friend that sent me the Plandemic video on social media. I responded with some debunking and she thumbed down my responses.
This woman is also one of the most enthusiastic maskers I know, she’s made video of herself not only putting on a mask but multiple layers of improvised PPE.
I think she forwarded the video and sort of bought into it because her idiot boyfriend sent it…she wasn’t really all in but more like “hmmmmm…something to think about”. And I was like “No, there really isn’t “.
But she is not as smart as I am, she not stupid but she doesn’t examine information for contradictions and correlations the way I do. And she doesn’t really follow politics — a lot of people don’t.
I went to a party back in January. I felt the attendees were rather typical in terms of the level of their political knowledge.
They were mostly Democrats. They knew Trump was being impeached. They heard the phone call and thought it was wrong. But no one recognized the names Alexander Vindman, Fiona Hill or Marie Yovanovich. This surprised me, most of these people were librarians and social workers and I expected them to be better informed.
Most Americans don’t really follow the news the way we do here on this corner of the SDMB.
Hmmm, since I posted this originally, our local Facebook groups blew up because it turned out he was posting reasonably in our threads, and then mocking us elsewhere. So I think you are indeed correct.
