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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

It's tribal. Yeah, it's that simple. To take the position that it's primarily - initially - about owning the libs, is folly. That's a mere collateral bonus for the anti-mask crowd. The primary driver of anti-mask behavior was what the Orange Man Said. Behind that are secondary drivers, such as "What the Orange Man said makes liberals mad."*

The flip side to it could be seen in dumb conversations I had with mask fanatics. I'd hear, "But the science! The science! Fauci is awesome and I'm down with science."

I wore a mask because a mask made sense. I think the people who broke it down into warring factions are jackasses. The sensible path was John McCain's on global warming: "What's the loss in a mild precaution?" Cost/benefit. Wear a fucking mask.

*ETA: That's unfair. I'm a liberal. Arguing against masks didn't make me angry. I just figured such people slow, or emotional. The people it gets mad are the weird tribal sorts on the left who don't understand that "liberal" thinking is defined by listening to varying views and separating the good from the bad based on logic, and ignoring those who've clearly "picked a side."

Since you seem to have missed what I said in the post you responded to, I'll try again:

To say that the primary driver of anti-mask behavior for conservatives was what Trump said has it backwards. Trump only said that because he knew that's what they wanted him to say, what they felt. But why did they feel that way so strongly? I haven't seen anyone put their finger on that.