an iterative process¶

When you suddenly realize that there are contradictions among the people 🤔

Things can be good without being good enough. That's why education is an iterative process. It's also why we don't resort to benevolent lies, like "mask for opsec purposes!" or "mask for inclusivity!" https://t.co/d8V2uiOuWc When you tell people that masks are for opsec, you risk them deciding they're willing to risk it, because they want to be "loud and proud." When you tell them masks are for making actions accessible, you risk them treating masks as a symbol, rather than a crucial safety measure. When your method of convincing people to take COVID precautions is to appeal to their sense of justice, you are unwittingly reinforcing dichotomous thinking, in which people mentally separate the "activism" side of their life from the "mundane" sphere. You are putting masks into the activism sphere, along with all the other behaviors that they wouldn't exhibit at work or the grocery store. You can fume over the lack of consistency all you like, you can remind people that "disability justice" has to be an everywhere thing, etc. But it doesn't change the fundamental contradiction at play, which is that, in the absence of full-blown revolution, people naturally approach different situations from different frames of mind. No one can "live the revolution" if there isn't a revolution to live. This is usually a good thing: it keeps mundane matters out of activism (e.g. no using encampments as your dating pool) and keeps activism out of hostile areas of "mundane" life (e.g. there is usually nothing to be gained from screaming at your boss for being a capitalist shill.) But in this case, it prevents people from realizing the importance of masking everywhere, not just for "justice" reasons, but for self-protection, and for the overall health of everyone. COVID safety needs to be taught as being mundane, automatic, obvious. This is really really hard to do against the backdrop of a society that has been completely inured to the omnipresent threat of COVID. Even something as simple as going to the store in a mask is taking a stand, so it feels very non-mundane. Trying to overcome that by steering into the skid, and convincing people that it very much is an extraordinary act -- just one they should do anyway -- fails to bridge the cognitive gap and lower the social barrier to masking, i.e. the reflexive mirroring of others' behavior. This isn't a question of right and wrong, consistency, or ideological purity. This is a question of getting people to consistently do something that society tells them -- in a million ways -- not to bother doing. It's possible, but it's difficult. And there are no shortcuts.