Thread by @bopinion

Judgment has become as much a part of the Covid-19 pandemic as a pile of crumpled masks.

Those who’ve been hunkered down for months can’t stand seeing their friends’ selfies from inside bars and restaurants and airplanes trib.al/lr9EKbJ

Friendships have ended over arguments about the safety of attending a protest or going on a date.

And it’s not only double-maskers condemning maskless “covidiots.” It’s the eye-rolling reserved for anyone still wiping down their groceries trib.al/lr9EKbJ

Seeking to avoid criticism, some people (and organizations) have been known to photoshop masks onto faces in their social media posts

Others, seeking to criticize, have blown up once-friendly group chats over Covid-questionable invitations trib.al/lr9EKbJ

Even vaccines, which ought to be cause for celebration, have become a source of tension, magnified by distinctions in eligibility criteria:

🚬Smokers vs. teachers
🗑️Diabetics versus trash collectors
trib.al/lr9EKbJ

We’ve spent 12 months resenting other people’s travel photos on Instagram and their roomy home offices on Zoom.

Debates over whether going to the grocery store means you’re still quarantining — or risking the health of an in-store shopper — aren't healthy trib.al/lr9EKbJ

The acrimony is understandable.

The pandemic has thrown us back into a world where the collective looms large: With a deadly disease in the air, each person’s decisions affect other people’s health trib.al/lr9EKbJ

At the same time, local authorities have often left people to make up their own minds as to what’s risky and what’s not.

This creates a perfect breeding ground for censure. Expect it to get worse as states drop their Covid restrictions trib.al/lr9EKbJ

Righteous indignation has an addictive quality, but all this side-eyeing is exhausting.

“There’s an empirical link between being overly judgmental and the amount of stress we feel,” says @tashaeurich trib.al/lr9EKbJ

If shaming is so costly, why do people still do it?

Eurich says it’s psychologically easier to decide that so-and-so is a bad person than to accept the dissonant idea that a good person might make a “bad” choice trib.al/lr9EKbJ

Shaming also offers an illusion of control.

“He went to a bar, so of course he got Covid” is a way of keeping distant from someone else’s situation — and hoping our own choices are protecting us trib.al/lr9EKbJ

The pandemic has undermined our mental wellbeing. Rates of anxiety and depression are up, and judgment just wears us down further.

It’s also undermining public health. If people know they’ll be judged for testing positive, they’ll avoid getting tested trib.al/lr9EKbJ

Earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic, historians noted that after the 1918 flu pitted fearful neighbor against fearful neighbor.

“Empathy is the antidote to ruminating about other people’s choices.” trib.al/lr9EKbJ

For those who can’t muster empathy, a different approach can be nearly as helpful:

The next time someone makes an unwise choice, make a conscious decision to refrain from thinking of them as a bad person trib.al/lr9EKbJ