"Take off the mask, you look stupid" Topic

@Scott, my daughter is immunocompromised and she wears a mask in public all of the time. Last month she mentioned that she doesn't get sick nearly as often as she did before she wore a mask.

Mr Elmo, if you really wanted to help people you wouldn't be so aggressive. Instead you just lash out with your own problems. Better to have stayed quiet in the first place.

Better to have stayed quiet in the first place.

Education (not criticism) is key to combatting ignorance so I can't walk up to every mask wearer at AdeptiCon and explain why they look foolish. It would be a full time job.

I pointed it out here as the event has lots of young people wearing masks and looking stupid. I can save TMPers from a similar fate.

Oh, will the 4 of you without shirts in the 40K event wear one? Nobody wants to see your pasty white dad bod and moobs! Idiots I say!

I don't see how someone looking stupid, solely in my opinion, should matter to anyone but me?

I can save TMPers from a similar fate.

I strongly doubt a single TMP reader will suddenly find their behavior altered in the slightest by the revelation that another finds that behavior improper, in solely that other individuals opinion.

The overwhelming majority of people reading this forum are fully grown adults and their behavior and actions are, more often than not, the products of their reasoned choices and not likely seeking or welcoming of unsolicited opinion masquerading as education.

I don't, but facd it masks are here to stay.
Do think masks would help allergy suffering outside. Covid however outside is your best bet and can't see masks needed.

+1 Parzival

I think Mr Elmo is funny. A little direct in his communication, but not nasty. He is calling-out what he considers boorish behavior and those who criticize him are effectively doing the same thing. He has expressed an opinion and harmed no one. It seems the best response, if you don't agree with him, would be to ignore Mr Elmo.

2 weeks ago at Cold Wars I wouldn't have needed both hands to count the number of people wearing masks, and most of them were a couple of elderly gentlemen who looked to be about 80 gathered at a single game.

+1 Parzival

I wouldn't have needed both hands to count the number of people wearing masks

That's the odd thing! The mask wearing is by millennials who are probably healthy, vaxed & boosted. They are smart enough to play wargames so I don't know if modern education has left them without critical thinking or what.

Oh well, tomorrow I will leave maskapalooza for more sane surroundings.

Peter Anderson, MD +1

Thank you.

Mr. Elmo,

I don't know if you have spent any time in Japan or Asia in general but mask-wearing has been common there since at least the end of WWII. On some days it seemed a third of the population are wearing masks. Same for Korea. I just assumed it was for air pollution. Mask-wearing is perfectly acceptable there.

So you would be alright if your surgical team didn't wear masks? Because they don't work? Good for you. What I don't understand is why you care. What possible difference does it make? I do have trouble understanding what mask wearers are saying. But I am not going to object to them wearing a mask over it. We will work it out.

How exactly does it threaten you?

About wearing a mask in a car. It does look silly but I think I know the reason. My wife is a schoolteacher and during covid, she wore a mask all day for weeks and she would sometimes forget she had one on until she got home and I would remind her.

I will continue to wear a mask in places where I think the infection risk is high or it is required (such as trips to the hospital) or if I am around my immunosuppressed father, immunosuppressed daughter or wife who is having cancer treatment.

Anyone who tells me not to can go and stick their head in a bucket.

mask-wearing has been common there

AdeptiCon is not in Japan. It's a good thing they had all that mask wearing I didn't know there was no COVID there…oh wait…

So you would be alright if your surgical team didn't wear masks

I'm not having surgery at AdeptiCon and I don't think anyone else did either.

How exactly does it threaten you?

It's doesn't, I'm just trying to help people not look stupid. Unless you like being a barista or bartender, lay off the nose rings and pink hair. I blame the parents. Little Jimmy came home with a mowhawk and nose ring and nobody said "You look like a ing moron. Shave that head"

I bet it was "he's just expressing himself and going through a phase"

@Mr Elmo

Are you familiar with that play by Monsieur Molière?

by Monsieur Molière?

Nope, last thing I saw was Top Gun Maverick with Little Elmo.

Considering the stench that typically emanates from most large con rooms by Saturday afternoon, masks might actually have a secondary, personal benefit…

Do you go up to random people wearing masks to tell them how stupid they look?
Why not?

As I said, criticism is not good for combating ignorance, you need to use education. As the TMPers here are likely not AdeptiCon mask wearers, there is no criticism and folks here could be safely educated.

I work in the hospital which got the first 2 patients with Covid in the UK…about 3 years ago in early 2020.

It is true that masks are primarily to protect others, but they do provide some protection for the wearer.

Social spacing is the big protector of all, of course!

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong but I heard that Japan has a lot of mask wearers, pre-covid, was allergens.

Schwabian Grenadier, we all know why. There would not be a monitor and keyboard between them.

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong

You're not wrong they had a lot of mask wearers and a lot COVID.

I don't care if you wear a mask, it is your choice.

I do have an issue with the mask Nazis who were rabid about mask wearing early on and belittled, banned and attacked, those who would not wear them. Read some of the back threads on TMP early on for examples of those people.

You can still believe that masks work against Covid, again that is your choice and maybe it makes you feel better. I have read to much that disagrees with that assumption. Just don't try and force masks on others.

Mr Elmo, your thoughts on 'education' are bizarre. You attempt to educate through rudeness and insult. If you seriously want to educate, do it more politely.

Well said 35thOVI

do it more politely.

All the anti ignorance sites say I need to rise above and model appropriate behavior: which I did! No mask, natural hair color, no piercings. Clearly some people want to remain ignorant and so if someone's ignorance is insurmountable, sometimes it's best to just let it be.

I guess I'll have to let people stew in their own stupidity.

let people stew in their own stupidity

Good idea. Remember to keep yourself on simmer, it is not good to boil over.

@Mr Elmo
It's a lot easier than wearing a Ukrainian flag on your face.

Clearly some people want to remain ignorant and so if someone's ignorance is insurmountable, sometimes it's best to just let it be.

Then please do. And as for educating the readers of TMP … Peter A., MD, did far more for educating the TMP environment in his one post, than the combination of all your posts in this thread combined. And much more appropriately respectful as well.

Not biting today.

Not biting TRU…..

So was Elmo the dude at Adepticon walking around crying so much his mascara was running down his cheeks? So sorry all the folks with masks and beards and piercings and different colored hair triggered you, Elmo.

I think that I'm going to start wearing a mask again just to tick off Mr. Elmo.

Assuming this guy, who is so concerned about educating people, tells each person wearing a mask in public to their face that they are uneducated right? Rather than just whining here after the fact?

Who cares who wears a mask or not. Put a spaghetti colander on your head if it makes you feel good.