I'm (hopefully) entering a new org soon. Only a few comrades there mask. At my workplace, or anywhere else really, nobody masks. The only people I see mask are like goldfish, and I only see them occasionally in public transit. It's disheartening by the day to see Covid trivialized, and AES like even China not care anymore, in spite of their good policies beforehand.
Just makes me feel like I cannot relate to people anymore, they all look at me like I'm supremely weird for masking, so it's even harder to convince people of anything politically, especially when I'm discriminated all the time and receive verbal abuse for masking. I really dont get how to talk to people when they wont understand the concept of masking to protect themselves/others and it makes me feel stuck politically, to the point I feel I have a one sided view of many social issues, through the POV of Covid consciousness and masking, and I dont see how a movement can be built if no one acknowledges this. I feel like I've become more disconnected from everyone, including comrades, especially them, because they wont listen or want to mask in the first place, and I dont know what to do. I use an N95 every day when going outside, and so does my partner. We dont eat out, etc. I get the fact many wont do this choice to sacrifice their lifestyle or whatever.. but :(
I remember before masking I was taken seriously, now it's impeding me in all my life's aspects just cause we live in an extremely ableist society. It's hard and alienating from others, and no one irl seemingly understands. It's very hard to see how to build a mass movement in these conditions, or to even socialize with others (and I'm very sociable!) when you're instantly labeled as weird. I'm so dissapointed in people sometimes I give up on interacting because of this.
Even among comrades, the moment I mention masking, everyone is suddenly awkward and tries to move on. I'm tired to act like it's a secret or such
I wish things were different. I wish I could connect with people again. And that comrades would take this seriously, because I feel alienated even from those I share the most with, and its painful. I dont want to create a struggle session or whatever, just wanted to feel heard, I hope most people here mask anyways. It's bad enough for my mental healtg to give up on all social stuff cause of masking, and other activities like swimming, it's just tough. Thanks for reading
Most annoying shit is when they invite me to go eating or drinking, or offer me food or drinks at meeting. Fuck off!
But yeah I agree. I'm lucky in that I'm not very sociable so i'm generally happy sitting at home reading and skipping parties. For more socially inclined people like you (or my brother) i cant imagine how rough it is.
Folks have talked about how easy it is to mask so i wont repeat that except to say if i see one more "leftist" call masking "bourgeois" i will shoot them and make their skin into masks. My mum makes min wage and was our only breadwinner and we never stopped masking!
Also ive lost a lotta respect for peoples commitment/bravery. I'm lucky enough (ciswhitedude privilege) to have escaped much verbal or physical abuse for masking, but my mother spent years being screamed at by truckers in her work place and was physically assaulted repeatedly (literally kicked in the head once as she was checking gas levels). I cant rly see antimaskers as anything but lazy cowards.
I also wanna add: it has started really pissing me off when people (especially comrades) get sick and cant make it to organising events. I havent been sick in years so it's rly started feeling more like antimaskers own fault for being sick to me. We dont have many people in my org, so stuff keeps coming to a standstill bc the antimaskers keep getting sick and its very frustrating.
I've saved a lot of money not going out to restaurants (tbh I'm paid minimum wage, couldn't afford that anyways.) I also like reading, I'm mostly ambivalent, I like socialization but also don't mind reading for a whole week lol. You and your mom are awesome! Yea I know of such similar abuse cases and discrimination, it sucks:(
At least the antimaskers in your org dont come physically to be plaguerats lol