Thread by @Loretta_Torrago

"Educators do not have rights to mask"
"This is out of concern students see faces."
Just like that, Denmark transforms the denial of a right to wear a mask into a requirement to unmask.
Denmark has made masks moral wrongs. @TracyBethHoeg is fine with that.
This is a dark path.🧵

Hoeg’s #UrgencyofNormal partner, @drlucymcbride agrees: “human beings need to see each other’s faces.” Maybe this is news to McBride but needing to see faces imposes on others obligations to reveal them. McBride doesn't restrict the obligation, which makes it a broad social one.

I don’t know how else to say this, but Hoeg and McBride seem to believe wearing a mask by one person is the wrongful deprivation of another person’s human needs. A little ironic coming from the individual responsibility camp, no?

Of course, the need is invented. People who never see faces, also known as blind people, are not damaged by unmet needs. And even if there were a “need to see faces” how is that worth saying unless you believe seeing them at home isn’t enough?

Which brings me to another question: How can that mean anything but, “Masking in public is wrong?”

In which case, I have another question: Isn’t that a little xenophobic?

https://twitter.com/luckytran/status/1491131845496696833

Which brings me to a related question: what exactly are we saying about Asia? To quote @tarahaelle, "To claim wearing masks is damaging.. you're presuming kids [from China, Japan] are messed up."

https://twitter.com/USofDisaster/status/1489035037781774342

If the kids are messed up by masks, then the entire Asian continent is filled with the abusive parents who make their kids wear them. That’s pretty harsh, right?

Which leads me to an observation: two of the most common anti-mask slurs are that people who wear masks view masks as a “religion” and that the mask itself is “virtue-signaling.”
politico.com/newsletters/pl…

And that makes me wonder: is there a connection between virtue signaling, religion, masks and the Islamophobic ban on head coverings that hide the face?
sabrangindia.in/article/swiss-…

It’s hard not to see a relationship between hate groups and anti-mask sentiment. This isn’t the only school board meeting where violence broke out over mask mandates.

I said at the outset “This is a dark path” and it is. But I don’t think it’s too late to bring things to a better place. What I do think is that it will take the efforts of all good people to navigate these dangers.

So I am imploring Tracy Hoeg and Lucy McBride, along with all the #UrgencyofNormal people, to tread carefully: these are perilous times.
End.

So sorry, not the end.
Thanks to @micah_arsham who finds the most interesting sources and generously passes them along.
Thanks also to @NKinNewEng who saw anti-Asia sentiment & Islamophobia in current debate long before I did.
End.... maybe. 😂

Still not the end. :)
@BSD_enthusiast informs me Hoeg mischaracterizes the guidelines as a ban but it's discouragement. Apologies (but if you've ever used Google translate on Dutch 😱). See @BSD_enthusiast's Tweet & link to document further down thread.

The point of the thread remains since the implication is wearing a mask is (morally) wrong.

https://twitter.com/BSD_enthusiast/status/1492228414958354436