i find the semiotics of people obsessing over who does and does not wear the mask and what it signals fascinating. to one side it signals a healthy level of paranoia - it says "i am worried, you can trust me", to the other side it signals an overabundance of trust in "authority"
theres a subset of people who dont wear the mask and are frustrated that others are. i find the accusation of "signaling" here directed at mask wearers to be projection. in my mind theres no way for me to know the truth so, i just wear one and therefore risk nothing. [...]
those not wearing the mask must concede that they are in some way signaling their own confidence in their own estimation of the risk. they are signaling "im told there is a risk, but i disregard this". this type of signaling isnt actually present in mask wearers.
i dont incorporate things i cant empirically confirm into my worldview so im neutral. but the extension of this logic is what i really see at play. angry non mask wearers are saying "im told there is risk, i disregard this" AND are frustrated others arent doing/signaling the same
this type of signaling is exactly what im talking about. as i said im neutral + cool w whatever decision people make, its just interesting. here you have someone pretending that masks just got invented recently and have never been used before or something
the layers of signaling stack and go infinitely deep. you have many people responding to that post saying “yes, THAT is why i dont wear the mask”. a tangled web of sociological signage. who is woke to what invisible threat is real or fake? get a badge
