by Rod Williams, Aug. 23, 2026 - I signed up for the Democratic Socialist of America, Nashville Chapter newsletter recently and today I got this notice of an upcoming meeting:
"A masked event!" Why? While some people still get COVID, the pandemic is over.
Unlike some on the right who viewed wearing a mask as some sort of submission to a tyrannical government and refused to wear a mask or get vaccinated, I did not. I always reasoned that we were experiencing a new phenomenon, and I trusted health officials. If they made some mistake, we were all figuring this out as we went along, and those who overreacted were doing so in good faith.
I know some jurisdictions kept schools closed far too long. Children under 5 years of age were required to wear a mask when they did not need to. Some wore masks in their car alone or while hiking in the woods and were super paranoid. Wearing a mask also became a means of ostentatious virtue signaling for some. During the massive Black Lives Matter protest and riots of 2020, the government did not require those participating in BLM riots and protests to wear masks, while people attending outdoor sporting events and those attending church were often required to do so. This liberal hypocrisy galled me. However, I viewed most wearing of a mask as a reasonable and socially responsible act.
In April and May 2021, as the country's vaccination program reached more people and rates of transmission dropped drastically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued guidelines stating that fully vaccinated individuals did not need to wear masks or physically distance when in public.
It is now August 23, 2026. It has been five years and three months since the CDS has recommended people were a mask. Why would the DSA require masks to be worn at a chapter meeting? I think the DSA are just weird.
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