I know people can get nasty in a crisis. I have seen the bottom pits of human behavior. But I haven’t seen anything like this COVID panic. Local Faceblob groups naming and promoting boycott of businesses they have determined not to be strict enough about masks? What is this, the McCarthy Era?
Hey, if you can find a website that promotes boycott of businesses who do require masks, let me know!
Frankly, I don’t want to poke, but it seems to me that most of the ugly, bullying behavior is coming from the mask wearers. I can’t believe how divisive the media has become. Here, Chico Enterprise Record columnist Kyra Gottesman goes completely off the deep end in a rant about an incident for which she has absolutely no proof whatsoever. This was not really worthy of print, it’s like something you should write in your diary and then burn it.
EXHAUSTED WITH THE NONSENSE
My grandmother used to say that out of all the things she ever lost, her mind was what she missed the most. For me, it’s my sense of humor that seems to have taken a bunk, gone MIA this week.
I’ve done pretty darn good the past five months maintaining some sense of hilarity about all the nonsense people spew and post on social media regarding all things COVID, most especially the face mask mandate, but this week, this week I’ve had it.
I’m done being nice about it. I’m done patiently explaining why. I’m done joking and jollying people about it. I’m done with listening to all the whining and complaining about it. I am done.
What finally tipped me over the edge was a woman in the grocery store who literally came right up on top of me while I was picking out some potatoes. She came up so close I could feel her over my shoulder and when I turned my head she was, well, in my face with no mask on.
“Excuse me but please social distance. I’m almost done. Also, they have masks at the front of the store. You could get one,” I politely said to her.
Well those were apparently the wrong 23 words to say because the next thing I knew she was spit-spewing screaming at me about “civil liberties” and “not being a Newsom puppet” and, and, and all the other ridiculous rhetoric the “poorly educated” that IQ45 “loves” so much regurgitate.
As I back peddled away and she kept following me other customers started to either stare or scatter. Finally she gave up pursuit and went back to the potato bin. I headed for a different part of the store and circle back later for potatoes.
With so many bars closed or operating with limited capacity I’m thinking there are probably quite a few unemployed bouncers out there who are quite adept at 86’ing the crazies. Imma thinkin’ grocery stores and other retail facilities should hire these guys.
Hire bouncers to eject people from grocery stores? If the above is true, she instigated this incident. Instead of getting her goods and getting out of the way, she tried to get in a fight with a total stranger. Maybe she should have been ejected. Is this where social intercourse is going in the Golden State?
I agree with her on social distancing and hand washing, which, as far as I’m concerned, should always be in vogue. But the mask argument is weak and inconsistent. The most common statistic out there on a cloth masks is that a person is 4% less likely to inhale the virus if they wear a cloth mask as opposed to wearing no face protection at all.
I just don’t get people balking at this. I’ve asked folks … Do you wear a seatbelt in your vehicle? Do you rant at businesses that post signs reading: “No shirt. No shoes. No service?” Do you wear goggles, hard hats and protective gear when working in certain places (think construction sites) or handling dangerous equipment (think chainsaws and chippers)? Do you take off your shoes, your belt and remove everything from your pockets and allow a full body X-ray and, from time to time, a pat down by TSA before getting on plane? Do you stay seated, wearing a seatbelt with your seat and tray locked in the upright positions when the airplane captain (actually the little tiny symbol lights above the seats) tells you to? Do you wear a helmet when you ride a bike or motorcycle? Do you think it’s perfectly OK to drink and drive?If you answered yes to the first six questions and no to the last, if you are compliant or at least non-combative about these things because you believe these rules, laws or mandates are not infringements on you personal liberties but are put in place for public safety and health then please explain to me how wearing a piece of cloth over you nose and mouth is an abridgement of your rights.
These comparisons just don’t compare. Shoes and shirt in a restaurant is on par with hand washing. I would go so far as to ask some women to wear more adequate seat protection. Car, motorcycle and airplane crashes kill millions a year, every year. The COVID doesn’t even come close. There no solid facts that a mask protects me anymore from COVID than standing 6 feet away from strangers.
Yes, it most certainly is an abridgement of my rights to force another ridiculous “necessity” on me that has no proven benefit. I’m not forbidding you to wear a mask, so back the hell off. Literally, please. This woman has a very weird need to control the behavior of others, and that’s fascism.
And here’s where she just casts herself into a tirade of hatefulness, hook, line and sinker.
You can’t. Not logically. Not with facts. And, if you try to, I cannot listen to you anymore. (Read that again, she’s saying she can’t listen to facts…)
First of all, you self-centered privileged American (she hates Americans? ) ; you don’t wear the mask just to protect yourself. You wear it to protect others if you are smart enough to understand that you could be asymptomatic and still be a COVID-19 carrier able to give it to someone else who could get very sick or even die. (all based on “could”, like most of the mask argument, this is just plain bullying…)
There is a lot that we do not know about this virus but, there is also a lot we do know about how viruses spread and how to mitigate that spread and those things are: wearing a mask, social distancing and washing our hands. (Here she admits she doesn’t know much, but still insists masks are a given)
I wear a mask when I go out not for myself but for others, for you, even for the crazy potato-screaming woman. I wear a mask because I want to be part of the solution and not add to the problem. I wear a mask not because I am government controlled but because I am a responsible member of this society who actually cares about people other than myself. I wear a mask because it is, simply, the right thing to do.
She makes herself pretty clear here, that she’s ready to segregate the community between the “decent human beings” and the “morons”.
Wearing a mask makes you a considerate, decent human being. Not wearing a mask makes you, well, a moron. End of conversation.
So this passes for “journalism” – how sad. To think this young woman would believe she could change anybody’s mind with these insults and condemnations, poor little thing. I hope she gets her mind back, as well as her sense of humor.
As for me, I will continue to go out bare-faced so I can show my smile, with clean hands and from 6+ feet away. I see others doing same. It’s not a political statement, it’s a human statement.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
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