this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
263 points (98.9% liked)

HistoryPhotos

1465 readers
130 users here now

HistoryPhotos is for photographs (or, if it can be found, film) of the past, recent or distant! Give us a little snapshot of history!

Rules

  1. Be respectful and inclusive.
  2. No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
  3. Foster a continuous learning environment.
  4. No genocide or atrocity denialism.
  5. Photos MUST be at LEAST 10 years old, and ideally over 20. We appreciate that we are living through events which will become history, but this is ultimately not a comm for news or current affairs, but events which have occurred some time in the past.

Related Communities:

founded 10 months ago
MODERATORS
Deceptichum@quokk.au
sga@piefed.social
PugJesus@piefed.social
263
People wearing face masks during the Spanish Flu, California, USA, 1918 (media.piefed.social)
submitted 1 month ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/historyphotos@piefed.social
22 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Because people understood back then that not wearing a mask while contagious meant directly killing others.

Also, flu was highly mortal at the time, and people were acutely aware of this.

I lost my parents because of an asymptomatic idiot who refused to wear a mask and wash his hands, yet insisted of visiting them. That person literally killed them.

I still consider anyone who consciously refused to wear a mask or get vaccinated during the last pandemic as selfish criminals and murderers who should be held accountable.