The Evidence for Face Covering Is Crystal Clear — If You Ask the Right Question

Face masks have become the newest battleground in America’s neverending culture wars. The mask-wearing side relentlessly shames those who don’t wear a mask, and the no-mask side occasionally shoots people who ask them to wear masks.

This was probably inevitable. Cultural warriors come out of the floorboards during an election year — especially now that a majority of the electorate votes against the side that they hate more than for the side that they like. It is in a lot of people’s interest to make us hate each other.

But the face mask issue goes deeper than the average random shibboleth that divides Americans into political tribes. It touches on the core identities of both conservatives and liberals. Being required (or even asked politely) to wear a mask in a public space grates like fingernails on the ideological chalkboard of conservatives, who prize liberty and self-determination, and who view any government agent with suspicion.

In much the same way, having everyone wear a mask in order to protect everybody else plays directly into the communitarian sensibilities of many liberals. It is the next best thing to joining hands and singing “Kumbaya” in an age when both handholding and singing come with an unacceptable level of risk.