I’m wondering whether ADHD-diagnosed people can demand exemption from masking under the ADA. They need stimulation, including social stimulation, to function. But if you’re wearing a mask, you going to have trouble eliciting rich, stimulating social feedback. Masks obscure facial expression and muffle subtle verbal cues. When others can’t see your expressions, including how your lips move, the interaction is dampened and less stimulating. So, an ADHD-diagnosed person has a plausible ADA issue to assert against someone enforcing a mask mandate.
Masking mandates are an imposition of a state religion. The dataset on masking outcomes is massive and it shows community masking does not curtail the transmission of respiratory virus. But we don't follow the data. In fact the CDC director is quoted as saying mandates are needed because it is too difficult to explain the science. Those are the words of every charlatan that has ever preached from a pulpit.
Thank you Richard for saying out loud what I and many others feel. The mask insanity may persist as a cultural fad, but I and others will resist, and our resistance is turning to scorn of any who promote this nonsense.
Richard, I am with you 100%. I am even certain I hate the mask more than you. I also defied last winter's mandate (NY) other than in medical facilities and that exception sticks in my craw.
In any event, I have no skills to fight back other than simple defiance. I honestly believe if more people just said NO it would stop. My father never, ever would have done stupid because government said so. No one should.
“most people are conflict-averse, and will be more likely to let you do what you want if you’re willing to complain loudly and aggressively enough. This is the secret of the success of identity politics, not the philosophical underpinnings of “Cultural Marxism” or “postmodernism” or any other nonsense.”
What I love the most about this is that the criteria are so elastic that they can be used to mount a frontal assault on the entire regulatory state. Seatbelts? Airport security theatre? Mandatory diversity seminars? Hell even no smoking regulations. "Sorry, mental health, I need this, here's my doctor's note, now fuck off."
It's like judo really. Using Safety First! talking points to defeat safetyism using its own cultural momentum.
Like so much about this pernicious episode, masks were about compliance and not health outcomes. I lived in DC, ground zero of the movement to get everyone on board after Fauci changed his mind. The masks were fantastically effective in increasing fear. All the apparatchiks donned them en masse and wore them 24/7, even when any reasonable person could conclude there was zero chance of transmission. I was incredulous. Aren’t most of these people college graduates? I watched chI wondered. It quickly became apparent that they were signaling virtue.
For most people, this is overthinking things. Just don't wear a mask in the grocery store or the gym. Normalize defiance.
For the last month of Oregon's maskcharade, I didn't and had no problems despite living in an extremely woke college town. I wore a mask while interacting with the employees (e.g. in the checkout line and walking past the front desk at the gym) to be polite to them. But when shopping or on the elliptical, no mask and no problems.
You Californians still wear mask? Lmao, I attend one of the most liberal universities in Texas and I would say 95% of the people don't wear mask. The only ones still wearing are some old professors and a few East Asians. And outside universities, literally no one wears masks. California is lost cause, Richard. Just move to Texas already.
I was thinking the same thing from the very beginning. If anyone didn't want a mask, they should just not do so and say, "it's medical" if challenged. As you say, that's going to work for most places. Obviously, not a doctor's office though. Same thing for affirmative action by the way, because all identities are seen as social constructs, identity classifications are based on self-identification. So, if you want to get into college on affirmative action, just mark whatever race with which you'd like to identify. If anyone asks (they actually won't), just keep a "straight face" and say, "yes, I identify as X". There's no more that could be said about it.
The question is, why do PH officials not use ordinary (though of course very "rough and ready") cost benefit analysis of externality-generating behavior. And Why did/does CDC not generate the data needed to improve such analyses over time? As a side issue, I've always thought that as mask mandate where no vaccine mandate applies is odd.
You speaking to the crowd when talking to me BUT as. doctor I know doctors turned into their state licensing boards for writing mask exemptions early in the pandemic even for kids with face rashes and claustrophobia. A personal friend who is physician spoke out at school board over this and the Children hospital she is associated with and her practice partners threatened to fire her. The major newspaper wrote an article on her and she had to drop out of the school board race. All because she stood up against masking and sought out another doctor to write her kids an exemption. That doctor was also turned over to the state licensing board. So it’s not just about doctors needing to get on board. I think all citizens need to act with civil disobedience in regards to masks and no doctors note is needed.
Richard, happy to talk on the phone - you can message me your phone number or email address via linkedin messaging - to set the call up. My linkedin address is available by clicking my profile picture , Ta Raymond
I haven’t laughed so hard in a while! I live in the eastern part of Alameda County. There’s very little compliance at the places I’ve gone to at least. Granted this part of the county has the most conservatives.
I've been carrying around just such a letter since before any mandate; I saw it coming. I have had varying degrees of success. Truth is, the real zealots will just say "shove your letter--no mask, no entry." They could care less about the ADA. The ball is then in your court to lawyer up and fight, if you have the money and time. Do you?
I’m wondering whether ADHD-diagnosed people can demand exemption from masking under the ADA. They need stimulation, including social stimulation, to function. But if you’re wearing a mask, you going to have trouble eliciting rich, stimulating social feedback. Masks obscure facial expression and muffle subtle verbal cues. When others can’t see your expressions, including how your lips move, the interaction is dampened and less stimulating. So, an ADHD-diagnosed person has a plausible ADA issue to assert against someone enforcing a mask mandate.
You just need to move. Trying to live in California is a lost cause. Cut your losses and head to Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, or Florida.
Masking mandates are an imposition of a state religion. The dataset on masking outcomes is massive and it shows community masking does not curtail the transmission of respiratory virus. But we don't follow the data. In fact the CDC director is quoted as saying mandates are needed because it is too difficult to explain the science. Those are the words of every charlatan that has ever preached from a pulpit.
Thank you Richard for saying out loud what I and many others feel. The mask insanity may persist as a cultural fad, but I and others will resist, and our resistance is turning to scorn of any who promote this nonsense.
Richard, I am with you 100%. I am even certain I hate the mask more than you. I also defied last winter's mandate (NY) other than in medical facilities and that exception sticks in my craw.
In any event, I have no skills to fight back other than simple defiance. I honestly believe if more people just said NO it would stop. My father never, ever would have done stupid because government said so. No one should.
This has got to end. I am glad you are trying.
“most people are conflict-averse, and will be more likely to let you do what you want if you’re willing to complain loudly and aggressively enough. This is the secret of the success of identity politics, not the philosophical underpinnings of “Cultural Marxism” or “postmodernism” or any other nonsense.”
Worth remembering.
What I love the most about this is that the criteria are so elastic that they can be used to mount a frontal assault on the entire regulatory state. Seatbelts? Airport security theatre? Mandatory diversity seminars? Hell even no smoking regulations. "Sorry, mental health, I need this, here's my doctor's note, now fuck off."
It's like judo really. Using Safety First! talking points to defeat safetyism using its own cultural momentum.
https://barsoom.substack.com/p/safety-last
Brilliant piece. All the power to you.
Like so much about this pernicious episode, masks were about compliance and not health outcomes. I lived in DC, ground zero of the movement to get everyone on board after Fauci changed his mind. The masks were fantastically effective in increasing fear. All the apparatchiks donned them en masse and wore them 24/7, even when any reasonable person could conclude there was zero chance of transmission. I was incredulous. Aren’t most of these people college graduates? I watched chI wondered. It quickly became apparent that they were signaling virtue.
For most people, this is overthinking things. Just don't wear a mask in the grocery store or the gym. Normalize defiance.
For the last month of Oregon's maskcharade, I didn't and had no problems despite living in an extremely woke college town. I wore a mask while interacting with the employees (e.g. in the checkout line and walking past the front desk at the gym) to be polite to them. But when shopping or on the elliptical, no mask and no problems.
You Californians still wear mask? Lmao, I attend one of the most liberal universities in Texas and I would say 95% of the people don't wear mask. The only ones still wearing are some old professors and a few East Asians. And outside universities, literally no one wears masks. California is lost cause, Richard. Just move to Texas already.
I was thinking the same thing from the very beginning. If anyone didn't want a mask, they should just not do so and say, "it's medical" if challenged. As you say, that's going to work for most places. Obviously, not a doctor's office though. Same thing for affirmative action by the way, because all identities are seen as social constructs, identity classifications are based on self-identification. So, if you want to get into college on affirmative action, just mark whatever race with which you'd like to identify. If anyone asks (they actually won't), just keep a "straight face" and say, "yes, I identify as X". There's no more that could be said about it.
The question is, why do PH officials not use ordinary (though of course very "rough and ready") cost benefit analysis of externality-generating behavior. And Why did/does CDC not generate the data needed to improve such analyses over time? As a side issue, I've always thought that as mask mandate where no vaccine mandate applies is odd.
You speaking to the crowd when talking to me BUT as. doctor I know doctors turned into their state licensing boards for writing mask exemptions early in the pandemic even for kids with face rashes and claustrophobia. A personal friend who is physician spoke out at school board over this and the Children hospital she is associated with and her practice partners threatened to fire her. The major newspaper wrote an article on her and she had to drop out of the school board race. All because she stood up against masking and sought out another doctor to write her kids an exemption. That doctor was also turned over to the state licensing board. So it’s not just about doctors needing to get on board. I think all citizens need to act with civil disobedience in regards to masks and no doctors note is needed.
Richard, happy to talk on the phone - you can message me your phone number or email address via linkedin messaging - to set the call up. My linkedin address is available by clicking my profile picture , Ta Raymond
I haven’t laughed so hard in a while! I live in the eastern part of Alameda County. There’s very little compliance at the places I’ve gone to at least. Granted this part of the county has the most conservatives.
I've been carrying around just such a letter since before any mandate; I saw it coming. I have had varying degrees of success. Truth is, the real zealots will just say "shove your letter--no mask, no entry." They could care less about the ADA. The ball is then in your court to lawyer up and fight, if you have the money and time. Do you?