I completely get what you're saying -- I really do -- I just think it's the wrong way to affect the change we need to keep people safe. I know some of the folks who resist wearing mask act out in highly inappropriate ways, but do you really think calling them names will change their hearts and minds? See, I just don't.
I know there have also been people who have physically and verbally assaulted folks for not wearing masks but I'm not sure labeling them is a good idea either.
I don't expect to convince anyone -- just how I feel.
I'm curious how you propose to go about this. Do you go up to people who aren't wearing masks and mention it to them?
I'm more interested in how we persuade larger groups of people (say, college students - because that's where I live and work).
I've never called anyone a name, and you keep saying that some of us have done that. I have not. I do think that some people have specifically stated that not only will they not wear a mask, but that they want others not to do so either - they don't want to be in the presence of mask-wearers.
I think we need a label for this group and I don't think anyone has yet been able to give a method for dealing with them (other than, for example, barring them from entering a space - which is what we are intending to do at the college, but the police are rather concerned about their role in this).
For example, we have a check point to enter campus for the people who must be on campus (athletes, film students who are editing, childcare students, nursing students, lab students). They are required to wear a mask at the checkpoint, answer a few questions and have a temperature check (fairly useless).
Then they go onward. Where they take their masks off, go into the lobby of the library (if they try to get through the turnstile they are turned away, but the lobby is large). Do we call the police on them?
Do we ignore the risks? These are people aged 18-40, mainly. This is the group with the steepest rise in CoVid where I live. 10% will be hospitalized.
Walk up to an individual (as we're passing through these conversational groups with no masks) and offer a mask?
What does this have to do with name calling?
Outside of their presence, we can refer to them, surely, as non-mask wearers. If, like a woman at a CVS drugstore who was filmed by a student of mine, a person decompensates and coughs and spits on the person who asked her to wear a mask, on others standing by (and on the security guard who was hiding behind a store manager, who was at the front of this melée and was the nicest darned person I've ever seen in a situation like that - had clearly had training and a natural gift for calmness), I think calling that women here on websleuths an "anti-masker" (so that we don't have to keep writing out all these details) is appropriate.
If we can't talk about these people and how to shape their behavior, I'm not sure how those of us who actually have to deal with such behavior on the daily are going to train ourselves and develop understanding. It must be nice not to have to deal with such things, but several of us do in fact have to deal with large groups. I do training for law enforcement - and you guessed it - they need training on how to deal with this issue. If I can't use practical information gained from my own experience, news source, journals - and yes, websleuths, I'm not sure where we go from here.
My goals are to prevent first responders from critical illness, but also to inform younger people about the risks they're taking. There are tons of issues where we have to have labels (next it will be "vaccinated" vs "non-vaccinated," as an educator and someone who is very involved in policy at the college, we will surely have to talk about it.
It's not name calling.
