Thread by @gwensnyderPHL

It is extremely worrisome how much anti-mask stuff has just ripped through otherwise-progressive folks involved in alternative health spaces in the past 6 months.

I witnessed folks *genuinely* concerned for someone advising her to avoid wearing a mask bc oxygen yesterday.

It was one of the first times since the pandemic started that I've felt like I could go out and do something (outdoor, distanced) socially for fun, and it was such a jaw-drop moment.

I thought folks weren't wearing masks because it was a potluck and they were eating.

And like, these weren't MAGA people mad at the libs.

We'd just had a solid casual conversation about housing discrimination and racism.

I knew one of the folks from a local progressive feminist group.

They really just thought masks were dangerous and unhealthy.

It has me thinking a lot about how deeply self-selective our social media environments are, and how having these spaces as our new during-pandemic primary social environment has really insulated us from seeing what rabbit holes other folks have fallen down during this isolation.

There have always been parts of alternative healing circles that overlap with straight-up conspiracy theory (anti-vaxx and fluoride stuff are two prime examples).

That's always been an uncomfortable reality in natural health spaces, but with a pandemic it's really dangerous.

We're all in our own forums and corners of the internet.

We aren't having those moments in offline casual conversation where we test our internet reading against consensus reality.

Those social space checks and balances don't exist like they used to.

To some degree, we've all been building our own cluster consensus realities over the past 7 months.

We're aware of the huge splits between MAGA consensus reality and centrist/liberal consensus reality, but there are really frightening sub-fractures we may not have noticed yet.

These fractures in what we think are safe, progressive-ish spaces are going to show up more and more as we start thinking about how we transition to a COVID-safer social normal after quarantine.

If/when a vaccine emerges, they are going to be incredibly difficult to navigate.

It's not just going to be masks, it's going to be anti-vaxxers in a moment where we are going to desperately need herd immunity.

It's going to be so hard and difficult, even/especially if we get the best possible news on a vaccine.

We just don't have consensus reality anymore.