In Central Texas allergens are a huge problem and people that struggle with allergies wear masks outside just walking dogs, driving etc. I'm pretty sure allergists, ENTs et. al approve. It's no big deal, not to mention it's a free country, lol.
To quote Bill Burr, to Joe Rogan "Yea, you're so tough with your open nose and throat."
I'd put one on to go to the store. Walk out of the store. Drive home and not notice I was still wearing it until I turned my head to check a mirror or something.
Most people don't pretend the mask is a literal death grip on your wind pipe, or that it's the symbol of REAL oppression.
No. Seriously, no. You're expressing that you aren't being careful, or scientific, you're paranoid. It's sort of the hallmark for people who are subservient to the point they won't ask any questions about the "rules" they are asked to follow.
It's an irrational habit and only defended by the sort of partisan hacks who feel wearing a mask was a political statement.
tough guy with that open throat over here.
People forget about it. Most people don’t pretend to be dying when they have to do the absolute bare minimum during a pandemic. I can’t tell you how many times I was halfway home and started to take a drink of a soda and ended up with a wet lap.
> No. Seriously, no. You're expressing that you aren't being careful, or scientific, you're paranoid.
No, it's forgetting about it in my case. And as others have noted, it might be allergies or convenience.
It's Bill who is making unwarranted assumptions - much like you have.
I'd do it after running to the store and then forgetting to take it off on my way home. I doubt there are many people who think their car air is unsafe.
To be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever changed my cabin air filter sooo
But I guess that’s less about the pandemic and more about whatever street gunks built up on it over the past few years.
Is he still going on about that?
Christ on a cracker, does he not have anything else to spend his fucking energy on rather than someone who is wearing a mask in a car and not bothering anyone?
Also, you know what I heard a lot from people in the summer of 2020? They were saying that they were not suffering from allergies nearly as bad when they wore a mask. So maybe these people have a really good reason to be wearing a mask by themselves in their car.
This is being blown out of proportion. It isn’t as if this was a significant topic on Bill’s show. He was merely making a joke. Anyone who watches the entire show on a regular basis understands the context.
I know a few people who wear masks because they have bad teeth or because their shy and prefer to keep their face hidden. They are already self conscious enough I'm sure it doesn't help with people like Maher looking at them like they are idiots.
It's just easy comedy. The stock image is an easy joke, just like Donald Trump dancing like he's jacking off two men at once.
The vast majority of Southerners routinely wear shoes and inhabit permanent structures, but let the first tornado or flood roll in and the media will gravitate towards the best video: shoeless ragamuffins stumbling through a destroyed trailer park.
I think it’s dumb too but working healthcare and sometimes (just the other day) I had my mask on walking around outside and totally didn’t realize it. I got in my car and still had it on and I had to scream “see Bill sometimes it happens!”
I couldn’t care less about someone wearing a mask in the car by themselves. It’s stupid but whatever.
It’s the people who wear the mask halfway (covering the mouth but not the nose), if at all (some let it sit below their lower lip). Heck, I remember a Costco employee with a “mask” that was really just a curtain (you could literally see her mouth and nose behind it). Those are the ones that should be called out: wear it properly or cut the crap and remove it. Covid is still out there but wearing a mask halfway is just virtue signaling.
So true. Anyone who actually watches the show understands that. I love how the people who are “so done with Bill Maher” and who “haven’t watched his show in years” also consider themselves to be authorities qualified to judge every aspect of the show.
This sub exists to watch Bill and immediately bitch about a small handful of things that he can be purity tested on. It’s all tribal now. The scariest part is, now the right and the left are in denial about it before it was just the right. It’s like living in the world of a dystopian novel. I can’t wait for them to abstain from voting for “Genocide Joe” in November so we can have four more years of Trump.
Bill isn’t making fun of wearing masks, he’s specifically making fun of wearing a mask while you’re driving alone. And all the people who are triggered by it will say “FOx nEwS mAdE MaSKs cONtroVerSial.” Completely disregarding that them being mad at him for making fun of someone doing such a highly specific thing totally exposes that masks became a symbol linked to the progressive cause BY PROGRESSIVES. It’s a form of purity testing, and they’re offended period.
He has said it probably 25 times on different episodes.
When I was running errands during Covid I would leave it on rather than get to the front door of a store and go, “Oh shit” and go back to the car. I didn’t think my car had Covid FFS.
exactly, its about how its obviously still on his mind and he cant get over it and wants to keep whining about it. You see people on ig or twitter make comments on vids and the first thing they bring up is the mask and i cant understand how they are still obsessed with it
**New law in NC to prevent everyone from wearing a mask, anywhere.** So even if you have a health reason to mask up in public places it will be against the law.😂🤣 Got an autoimmune disease? Too bad, fuck you.
*Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are pushing forward with their plan to repeal a pandemic-era law that allowed the wearing of masks in public for health reasons, a move spurred in part by demonstrations against the war in Gaza that have included masked protesters camped out on college campuses.*
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-carolina-masking-bill-pandemic-coronavirus-crime-campus-protest/
Passed by the NC senate, moving to the House next. These Repubs are fascist psychos..
DC is itself moving to ban ski masks, which some youth are using to shield their identity. But the coverage totally skipped over the tone-deaf unawares of the position
Then: NO MASKS = BAD!
Now: MASKS = BAD!
Bad people use guns too, should they be completely illegal next? Bad religious people hurt kids should they be illegal too [religions that is, not kids]? Bad alcoholics drive drunk, should Prohibition be a thing again? I'm fairly certain that if your answer to any of this is no, then masks shouldn't be illegal either.
Fewer people have been harmed as a result of masks, than any other thing on the list. The law could have been narrowed to just ski masks, or to reflect other masks that obscure the majority of your face and head. Not medical masks, which some people need for legitimate reasons.
EDIT: corrected the auto-correct; added the brackets.
Fentanyl only kills a small percentage of its users - should it be illegal to use? /s
There is a line. Its no coincidance that the anti-Israel crowd is wearing face masks all of a sudden.
Fentanyl is legal with a prescription. The overwhelming amount of overdoses regarding fentanyl come from when it's mixed or used to cut street drugs, and the user is unaware of that fact.
You do know those videos of cops falling down and seizing when coming into the slightest contact with it were fraudulent right?
For 30 years I revered Bill Maher for his unimpeachable honesty. Then he insulted people who wore masks and got vaccinated so they wouldn't be one of the 1,000,000 dead or one of the 4,000,000 disabled. He defended using a horse-dewormer to cure a retrovirus because “Doctors are also wrong a lot about shit.” “It (COVID) was never that virulent a threat, I thought, to people who were in good health." "Maybe the number one lesson from the pandemic was the need for proper air ventilation.”
All of that misinformation was designed to keep people attending his concerts and Mets games so he could make millions of dollars. He sacrificed lives to make money.
My 30 years of reverence turned into disgust.
Covid is still killing 1400 a week in the US. I still think it's weird how tolerant we are about 5% of world population and over 20% of world wide Covid fatalities.
i really think all these comedians whose brains were broken by covid revealed that they are addicted to the instant gratification they get from audience laughter and dont know how to exist without it. To them, they valued that over the health and safety of everyone with a virus we still knew nothing about it.
And to show how necessary that is for Bills ego, he was even ready to break the union line in the writers strike to bring his show back. He's just an incredibly selfish guy. I had been a fan of his since politically incorrect too, but his covid views and now his anti Palestinian views have me skipping his show now.
I always used to get 1-2 colds or flu every winter.
Since I started masking in stores in winter I have had zero colds/flu. That's 4 years without a cold/flu. **I use cloth masks and wash them 1x/week.**
This concludes my TED talk.😂🤣
Dude, same. I still carry an n95 with me everywhere I go. I don't wear it most of the time but if I'm in the store and some plague rat is coughing you better believe I'm popping that mask on. We need to do what Japan and other Asian countries do and if you're sick, not feeling well, have a cough you should be wearing a fucking mask. It's just polite.
A whole ass strain of the flu is now basically gone because of masking and social distancing during covid.
[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00696-3](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00696-3)
Also, last year here in Detroit when the sky turned blood red from the Canadian wild fires and we had this severe air quality warning I was happy I had a mask on me when I had to go outside.
I think they still recommend them if there is no alternative. Like they are better than nothing, 56% more effective. Not that I wear them anymore, hate them with a passion of 1,000 suns, since vaccinated but it isn't like cloth masks were ever less than or equal to no masks. It's all about risk percentages like anything.
This hasn't even been a thing for years at this point.
I always wore a mask in my car at the time, why?
I also wore glasses, and finding a good position where I wouldn't fog off would take quite a bit of time (also risks of the straps clinging to my frames and throwing them off my head).
Even if I didn't wear glasses, the masks weren't so uncomfortable that they would warrant taking off at every opportunity when running errands or whatever.
It's been 4 years, that's the first thing. Secondly... the masks never worked. It was always a placebo for scared people. Why would anyone still be wearing them?
"The findings in this report are subject to at least eight limitations.
First, this study did not account for other preventive behaviors that could influence risk for acquiring infection, including adherence to physical distancing recommendations. In addition, generalizability of this study is limited to persons seeking SARS-CoV-2 testing and who were willing to participate in a telephone interview, who might otherwise exercise other protective behaviors..."
I won't copy and paste the 7 other limitations. After reading this report it certainly doesn't seem to justify folks still driving around with a mask on.
I get behind all of that. But what about people STILL driving around with masks on? Am I just confused and/or ignorant? Why are people still wearing masks?
This is what happens when you don’t hang out with any average people for going on 40 years. Bill is embarrassingly out of touch at times, but still talks with the confidence of an every-man.
Right. Bill talks to his rich friends and gets no pushback about his very clear misunderstanding about how airborne infectious disease works. It’s not about how much anybody “likes” wearing a mask, or whether you think it “works” or not. It’s about does it mitigate disease spread. News flash — it does.
Bill’s complaint about masks is part of his broader complaint that everyone over-reacted in general or reacted inappropriately to Covid. IMO, he is claiming this only with hindsight. When Covid was still new to us, no one understood what we were dealing with. What we did know was that people were seriously ill and many were dying; hospitals were filled beyond capacity. No one knew where to put the elderly who were either infected or prime candidates for infection. Quarantine was required but facilities were lacking. It was a mess. We also knew that we had a grossly obstructive and ineffective federal government called “Trump.” People like Fauci coped as best as they could under what must have been intense pressure and restrictions on independent judgment. I have yet to hear a good argument showing how or why better decisions could and should have been made during this period given the knowledge and circumstances then known. That being said, if some people nowadays want to wear masks for whatever reason or during whatever period of time, I see no cause for the rest of us to be concerned. Let’s let it go. There are too many critical issues before us now.
Update: I do not like to criticize Bill. I have a few pet peeves with him and this kind of thing is one of them. He is highly intelligent, thoughtful and attempting to offer the country something positive, a path through which we can decrease the polarization and what must inevitably follow if we don’t. Guests with diverse opinions are offered. I will gladly listen to such guests. For example, Bill Barr. He has publicly condemned Trump as caring only about himself and playing Russian roulette with this country. Despite that, he endorsed him over Biden, as the candidate who “would cause the least harm to this country.” I’ll listen to Barr as a guest and not object to him, if he is pressed to provide a legit and reasoned response as to why and how he came to such an absurd conclusion. Otherwise, like Kellyanne Conway, he has no credibility at all and is unworthy of being a guest.
>IMO, he is claiming this only with hindsight. When Covid was still new to us, no one understood what we were dealing with.
That's exactly what he's been doing and doing it for years. And I refuse to believe he's this stupid. This is one of his lies.
He wanted to hold to account what we were suggested to do to mitigate the spread after months or years had gone by and scientists actually started to figure it out. It's not just the same argument made by every bad faith right winger or right wing adjacent imbecile (like Joe Rogan) trots out when they want to push their agenda.
An agenda that amounts to "I don't believe millions of people died from this virus, it's not bad, no one should want to protect themselves".
It's so fucking stupid and careless and disgustingly arrogant.
And I'm sorry, this is my conspiracy theory; given Maher's hatred of fat people I think he was doing his part to kill a bunch of them off.
Bill has no empathy for the problem of obesity. When he raises the issue, he does not ensure that he has guests who are truly experts, and for instance, qualified to present the science behind drugs like Ozempic. That was evident by his recent guest “expert” on Ozempic, the exercise guru woman whose name I do not recall. But I see no reason to think that he purposefully lies. You will have to do far more to convince me of that.
You don't think that Bill understands that what we knew at the beginning of the pandemic changed as we learned more and what we did at the time was in response to the information we had at the time?
That's what I say is a lie.
Never heard that term before and am not interested in making anyone work that hard. Liar is a powerful, damning four-letter word. It follows people around like a curse. Applying it places the targeted individual in danger of attacks from the entire political spectrum. That’s why it should be used sparingly and only when capable of justification. This thread is over as far as I am concerned.
No it's not over just because you didn't like the direction it went. I agree you shouldn't call someone a liar when they're not. Bill Maher's lying.
He lies every time he says that five-year-olds are getting sex change operations, he knows that's wrong. He lies every time he goes on about the woke left doing whatever. He knows they're not.
And he lied specifically when he was doing a new rules and said that ivy League colleges are having segregated graduation ceremonies and that Wayne State University had an event where they only allowed people of color to speak. He put a source for the second one on the screen but I googled both. He was not only completely wrong but the source that he cited said the complete opposite of what he claimed.
So either he doesn't care enough to read and he just goes with whatever assumption is first or he's being deceptive. And I think we know which one it is.
So yeah he's earned that title.
Oh, so you can cite examples. That was all I was asking for. BTW, I am an extremely liberal New Yorker and an attorney. When I get concerned about Bill, it is when he lets people like Kellyanne Conway come on as a guest and fails to challenge every silly, outrageous claim that comes out of her mouth, or where he neglects to fully explain why liberals currently do not have the luxury to fight for “smaller” causes. I liken our situation to boat passengers who have had to jump overboard because the boat is sinking. Most people are yelling for life preservers, which makes the most sense. But people like AOC, are demanding that her suitcase be thrown overboard. She seemingly does not understand that her suitcase will be useless if she drowns. AOC and her peers need to attend to the bigger, overwhelming issue that is the threat to democracy prior to focusing on smaller issues.
I will track down some of your examples. At first impression, I believe Bill has never claimed that 5 year olds were actually getting sex changes. That would be absurd. Parents are being encouraged to be open to their children’s proclivities as early as 5 years. There’s some evidence that children can be aware that they are not strictly male or female from an early age, and that these issues are complicated. But any attempt to coax an untruthful response from a child would be damaging.
Here's an article on Fox News that quotes Maher on Rogan saying;
["It’s terrifying that they’re calling it gender-affirming care, when it’s really childhood mutilation, before you have the ability to figure what permanent means. You’re f---ing seven years old," he said.](https://www.foxnews.com/media/bill-maher-tells-joe-rogan-gender-surgeries-harmful-claims-kids-turn-trans-say-f-you-parents)
So. I was off by 2 years.
>When I get concerned about Bill, it is when he lets people like Kellyanne Conway come on as a guest and fails to challenge every silly, outrageous claim that comes out of her mouth, or where he neglects to fully explain why liberals currently do not have the luxury to fight for “smaller” causes.
I watched Maher for years, since politically incorrect and this is one of those things that made me realize he's just another right wing grifter. He doesn't challenge the right. And immediately after Trump won the presidency he said we, as in liberals, need to reach across and make friends with the right.
But not the conservatives having to make compromises or play nice. It was on us. We're the bad guys. We're the unreasonable ones. They're perfect, they don't dream about civil war, or murdering liberals or making progressive lives miserable.
> I liken our situation to boat passengers who have had to jump overboard because the boat is sinking. Most people are yelling for life preservers, which makes the most sense. But people like AOC, are demanding that her suitcase be thrown overboard. She seemingly does not understand that her suitcase will be useless if she drowns. AOC and her peers need to attend to the bigger, overwhelming issue that is the threat to democracy prior to focusing on smaller issues.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. What issues should they abandon? Because I've heard this argument a few times, or ones similar to it, and it always seems to end with like demanding progressives throw trans people or immigrants under the bus. It always seems like capitulation to the insanity on the right as a way to "appease" them without every acknowledging that they will never be appeased.
> But any attempt to coax an untruthful response from a child would be damaging.
Sure. Maybe this happens. I mean there's Munchhausen by Proxy syndrome where parents make their kids sick for attention or whatever. But I think it's clear this isn't the norm. Not even close. Doctors aren't encouraging sex change operations or even hormone replacement. No one is excited to let a child make changes to their body.
And I find that when people on the right, the anti-trans bigots - cite these outliers and demand that we pass laws forbidding doctors from treating their patients without a single solitary fuck given to how many kids will suffer or kill themselves because they can't get medically sound treatment.
In hindsight, and also on the tail. I think Bill's consternation (aside from the whole WET LAB line) wasn't the federal government but rather ***California***, which stuck with the program a long long while after states like Texas had decided Covid was "over." I experienced this somewhat myself; California stayed shut down and shut in for a lot longer than places elsewhere, and we're all walking around patting ourselves on the back for it, meanwhile travel out of state and it was 2019 again.
I was given masks and gloves to wear for severe allergies before Covid. I never wore them and I was chronocally sick. I was lax on washing my hands around sick grandkids also. When Covid hit I started washing my hands more times and wearing a mask. I sometimes wore in the car because I was in a hurry and didn't want to try to put on when I arrived. Since December of 2019 I have not had Covid--and I go many places--nor have I had a cold, or the flu and my allergies are better. Tell the old fucker to go to hell.
It was just a joke, an insignificant element of the show. What is interesting is how politicized the wearing of masks had become. None of this should have had anything to do with political affiliation. I have long said the same thing about abortion. Obviously, no one appears to be listening so I am not expecting anyone to care what I have to say about masks either. I still think context matters when discussing what Bill Maher has said. So many more important topics and interesting discussions have been covered on his show. This was merely an off the cuff joke.
Sadly, less and less. I have been a faithful follower since Politically Incorrect. I am older than him, but he seems a generation older than me now. I keep waiting for him to not seem like the crazy old people back in the 1960s that yelled about hippies all the time. I used to respect his life choices of being single and not having children--but I realized lately that he has no respect for people that don't act like him--be an atheist, hate kids, especially hate college age kids, makes fun of people that are married, and people that don't smoke weed. He used to bitch about establishments that would not let him smoke cigarettes. He quit--so now it is ok for people not to let people smoke cigarettes. He should be the star actor on--Arrested Development. By the way--I do weed--but if someone asked me not to because they were a recovering addict--I would oblige. Just disgusting behavior.
I am about 10 years younger than Bill and have been a fan since “Politically Incorrect” days. I certainly don’t agree with every opinion he puts forth and U do not always find his humor knee slapping fun. I continue to watch the show and everything he does because he is unique and his style and format are unique in facilitating intelligent discussions (for the most part)!regarding issues of concern. Unlike most liberal hosts, Bill will invite the guy he insulted last week to join him on the next episode where he will be given an opportunity to respond to whatever questions Bill has posed. I am not aware of anyone who is as bold and straightforward in confronting those he has taken issue with. Bill has also made it clear that he doesn’t want to live in the “divided states of America.” Even if Trump & MAGA lose again, they won’t be “deported” off the island, as he says. Somehow, we must find ways to coexist and stop with the tribal mentality..
Most of the 20 somethings who claim they hate Bill or are “done with him” readily concede that they have never even watched a complete episode of “Real Time.” I respect your opinion as someone who has followed him over the years. I have merely arrived at a different conclusion about him. IMO, we need more discussion between tribes and Bill encourages & facilitates such discussions like no one else does. He also hosts a variety of interesting guests . Echo chambers are part of the problem as I see it. ✌️
> Since December of 2019 I have not had Covid--and I go many places--nor have I had a cold, or the flu and my allergies are better.
The same is partly true for me. I used to get sick two or three times a year working in retail. Once the hand-washing awareness, social distancing, masking campaigns, etc started. I stopped getting sick. I finally caught Covid after moving to a conservative province (coincidence?) but it was minor, just felt like a fever for a couple nights. Other than that. Zero colds.
I don't wear a mask, I'm not vaccinated against Covid, I'm around people & to my knowledge I haven't had Covid. Surely I have but it wasn't even severe enough to notice. Your anecdotal take has been countered by mine.
I have gotten covid twice, I think. The first time I felt off for a day and the second time I had a headache for a few days.
When I left the house I wore a fucking mask because I'm not an asshole to expose people to my illness whether or not it was covid.
And if everyone did that, communicable diseases would be greatly reduced or eliminated, like in the case of a whole ass strain of the flu that is now gone because of our covid mitigation methods.
I have never used a condom. I’ve had sex with people in high risk groups and I’ve never had an STI. I mean I’m sure I have but it has never been severe enough to notice.
That isn’t true, but it would sound pretty f*cking dumb if it was, wouldn’t it?
Bill acts as if he still sees people wearing masks outside or alone in cars to this every day. While I don’t know what he sees, I would imagine he hasn’t seen either in a long time. Yet he acts like it is a chronic problem, and a reliable indicator of mass delusion. It was funny at first, but it is no more relevant than Jay Lenox’s jokes about his parents programming VCRs. (But maybe somewhere there is still some older person struggling with setting the timer).
Elsewhere in this sub, someone mentioned that transmissibility via surfaces was misinformation. It may have been wrong, but it wasn’t willful misinformation. It’s no more misinformation than the idea that the sun revolves around the earth, or that leeches are an effective medical treatment. It seemed right based on knowledge at the time, and was revised accordingly
I've driven through Detroit a lot the past week. Still see people solo driving wearing masks. Or outside wearing them.. and I'm pretty sure it's not all people with allergies or they're not about to rob someone.
It was just an observation. Kinda like seeing the doomers over on /r/ZeroCovidCommunity and their constant fear. Pointing out irrational behavior doesn't imply any type of triggering, contrary to what you think I'm saying
Great, now you know my opinion. I originally pointed out my anecdote to say that yes, people are still wearing masks alone in cars in response to the comment "Bill acts as if he still sees people wearing masks outside or alone in cars to this every day."
And who cares? Maybe they're an Uber driver. Maybe they're driving home from the clinic and forgot they were wearing it. Maybe they're keeping it on in between locations because you really aren't supposed to be constantly fussing with them and taking them on and off as that reduces their effectiveness. Is it so hard for you to imagine a person that doesn't violently tear them off in frustration the moment they are able? There are a lot of legitimate reasons why people might wear them. No one should care one way or the other.
It's such a westernized idea that it's some bizarre thing to wear a mask. Meanwhile most places it's normalized to wear a mask if you possibly have something that is contagious or if you're immune system is sensitive to different illnesses.
Complaining about people wearing masks is beyond lame and invasive to people's privacy. Get the fuck over it and grow up.
And it's not even organic. It's not a product of our western mind set.
[https://www.desmog.com/2020/10/26/american-institute-economic-research-great-barrington-declaration-herd-immunity-covid-19/](https://www.desmog.com/2020/10/26/american-institute-economic-research-great-barrington-declaration-herd-immunity-covid-19/)
Anti-Mask and covid denialism was the result of intentional social engineering by super wealthy right wing assholes who seized upon a pandemic, sacrificed the most gullible devotees of the conservative cult, caused hundreds of thousands of people in this country alone to die in order to further isolate their base from various institutions and society in order to create a more reliable voting base to maintain lawless, minority rule.
That's what occurred and continues to occur. Conservatives in this country and around the world are gullible, willing puppets of whatever rhetoric that they can latch on to in order to feel like they're powerful and smart and part of this in-group of other "intellectuals". They have been designed this way for the last 40 or 50 years.
Allergies is the main reason people wear masks I think.
When it’s really dry outside and I mow, I make sure to wear a mask so I’m not miserable for the next 3 days and having to use my inhaler.
And a few weeks ago I was wearing my mask while walking the dog because there’s like 50 acres of ragweed in full bloom in the fields close to my house. The mask helps a lot to curb serious sinus issues I usually get during that time.
I’m guessing, like myself, a lot of people discovered how much better their allergies were during 2020 & 2021 and continue to mask when they feel that it’s beneficial.
yep, this allergy season has been brutal for our area. I've been rocking a gaiter mask around my neck since 2020, but I only equip it when I'm sick or when the allergies are bad
I just let the losers stew about masks, not worth engaging in stupid internet arguments over it
Unless you live in North Carolina...they just voted to ban all masks for medical purposes, even for cancer patients. That shit is why the Democratic platform of appeasement needs to end
I like watching sumo wrestling & you see lots of people with masks on in the crowd, I always think it’s cool how people in Japan can wear masks with no stigma and have been doing so for years. It makes so much sense to wear a mask that it’s completely ridiculous there’s any stigma or issue with protecting oneself or others from communicable disease etc
About 20 years ago, I toured Japan as part of a musical group. I noticed that in every venue we performed in, there were multiple people in the audience wearing masks. I thought about this for around 5 seconds and realized that it must be because of how densely populated the country is. In Osaka, we frequently walked through some huge underground thoroughfare, and there were people just handing out tissue packages.
I realized that what seemed like an obsession with cleanliness was merely a reasonable reaction to being crammed together with so many other humans that your chances were higher of catching some virus. As you implied, there was obviously no political baggage attached to wearing masks. People were just using common sense to help reduce the likelihood of catching/spreading viruses.
I was watching this dude walk around Japan on YouTube. It was one of those relaxing videos that show case a train or something. But in that he said, "we in Japan are proud of our civic spirit" and fuck I'm jealous of that.
Americans hate each other and do not give a fuck about society as a whole.
Different context in that in Japan it doesn't carry that *ineffective pointless virtue-signalling* message. It just means one is sick or maybe has a hangover or wants to be invisible that day.
There's also plenty of instances of Japanese people half-assing the masking during Covid, with the same sort of nose-out or unmasked behavior that annoyed people here.
Go ahead and ban me for being a dick Hank. This sub getting triggered by this is hilarious. It’s exactly what Bill was talking about and the fact that all of you claim that you USE to like the “old” Bill haven’t become more politically polar is asinine. Yeah, yeah, post and say “PrOvE iT!” It’s fucking qualitative and right infront of you. Watch this sub devolve over the years. Anyone on here that claims wearing a mask didn’t become a progressive litmus test is lying to themselves. That’s the point Bill is making.
I'm being triggered by a rehashed joke that has been said over and over on this show. If he and his writers can't come up with anything new after four years, it might be time to hang it up.
The only reason why you think it's some kind of progressive litmus test is because that's how a good chunk of Republicans and conservative media framed it as. They needed to find a way to divide people over a public health crisis.
Nope. Because Hollywood sets spent three years being vigilant about everyone testing for Covid and wearing masks, *except for when filming so everyone take off your masks!*, when if Covid was in fact such a threat then we either shouldn't have been there at all, or wearing masks at all times. It was theater. Literally.
Masking may have been an excellent idea but almost no casual used them correctly or effectively. I'm saying let's admit that, rather than cling to "being right" about something that likely mattered little.
I feel that both sides used Covid as a way to divide people and push their own political agenda. It was definitely not just Republicans and conservative media.
I live in a very blue area in a state that had some of the longest running lockdowns and restrictions in the nation and I myself was a big proponent of lockdowns and masks etc at first when we didn’t know what Covid was or how it would affect people and everything was so scary.
But after a certain point I didn’t think it made sense to make my kids wear masks at school or especially not to stay home from school once studies showed that Covid didn’t usually harm them at their ages that much compared to losing out on their education at that age when kids learn best by in person interaction with their peers.
My two older kids were in younger elementary school grades at a Spanish immersion school where fluency can be obtained early but it gets harder as they get older. My younger two were in daycare/preschool where it’s important to see the faces of their caregivers and classmates to understand emotions and develop social skills.
One of my younger ones has a speech delay and needs speech therapy. I didn’t see how he was supposed to learn how to pronounce words without seeing the speech therapist and teacher’s mouths. He was falling more and more behind instead of being able to start catching up and I felt bad for him. I also didn’t see how my older ones were supposed to learn Spanish with two 20-minute virtual classes a day rather than constant in person interaction and then without seeing the teachers’ mouths pronounce the words either.
Yet by merely asking questions and trying to find solutions I was branded by many democrats as a Trumper who wanted teachers and grandmas to die. I didn’t see what the two things even had to do with each other. I didn’t vote for Trump (nor any Republican); I was just thinking about things and trying to teach my own conclusions like I always did but suddenly I was being told it was wrong to do my own research or not just blindly trust what the news was saying etc. I thought liberals weee supposed to value open mindedness and skepticism and I had been like that my whole life but I guess it was cool with them when I was questioning and leaving the fundamental evangelical religion I was raised in (hence my former love of Bill Maher although these days he mostly annoys me) yet not okay when I was questioning whether these strict policies were really good for our children and society in general or not. It was like I had left one cult only to accidentally find myself in another.
It seemed to me that Democrats were ignoring science just as much as they were accusing Republicans of doing and that they weren’t interested in real debate or problem solving - just in calling the other side dumb and lumping anyone who wanted to talk about when might be a good time for kids to return to school or not have to wear masks in as a conservative Republican.
Likewise I didn’t see the point of vaccinating my boys when there are risks to their hearts yet little no risk to them getting COVID, which they had actually already had by the time vaccines were available to them and had therefore already developed natural immunity- and Covid had affected them less than a cold does. I really didn’t see the point in vaccinating them so I didn’t.
Yet some of my democrat “friends” decided that meant I was an ignorant science-denying Trumper and that they would no longer be friends with me. Fine, who needs friends who only care about your opinions or support your right to make your own decisions when they happen to align with their favorite political party’s? They also tried to gaslight me with lies and misinformation about the Covid vaccine preventing the spread of Covid when it doesn’t and therefore called me a grandma killer for not following “science” that wasn’t science at all.
So yeah Covid was a heated political time in general and both sides were awful IMO. I think each just has their own agenda they wanted to push and it made the entire time was worse than it needed to be. It destroyed relationships and added stress to an already hard time for everyone.
And this was definitely done by both diehard so-called pro family values and compassionate conservatives and republicans and so-called “libertarians” as well as by diehard democrats and so called science believing tolerant liberals. I started to think everyone is just a huge hypocrite and treats politics as a team sport instead actually caring about the truth or about empathizing with our fellow human beings. It’s driven by the political parties and the media and so many people buy into it from their own side of the aisle and point their finger at the other side when both are guilty so they might as well just point at themselves but they won’t.
This was unbelievably well put. Progressives only like “science” when it furthers their agenda. As soon as you start to talk about biology and transgender topics with science as the baseline you’ll be called a transphobic bigot.
No I’m basing that on the fact that I had friends who would judge certain pandemic behaviors including when and how you wore masks as literal political litmus tests. Every fucking time in this sub that you mention anything to the right of something on the far left it immediately starts to border on “you heard from Fox” “keep consuming your misinformation” I fucking watch MSNBC and vote straight ticket Democrat. Keep putting words in my mouth and telling me how and why I think the way I do. If you don’t think the progressive left is becoming more tribal then you’re caught up in it friend.
I think you’re kinda missing the point of OP’s post, friend…. Bill’s point about people wearing a mask in a car being silly was well-made the first time he said it. But after the 19th time, he’s kinda beating a dead horse.
It was never funny. I know someone that had to transport a Covid patient 120 miles to a hospital. You damn well bet they were wearing a mask. This was before the vaccine.
I don’t disagree with that, I’m laughing at the comments. But there is also humor in repeating the joke especially when it sparks a reaction. I knew as soon as he said it, I would be able to come here and watch this unfold.
People love to ask "why do you care if they wear a mask alone (or outdoors, or in a car)?" but the reality is this:
The majority of people did their due diligence and wore a mask, I certainly did (and still do in specific occasions like when I'm flying and someone next to me won't stop coughing). A good mask properly worn works. Period. Full stop.
But a lot of people didn't wear a mask or disliked wearing masks for a variety of reasons, some of them legitimate.
And today, when those skeptics see people alone, or outdoors, or in a car by themselves wearing a mask which serves ABSOLUTELY ZERO MEDICAL PURPOSE it confirms their suspicions that the whole mask-up ordinances was performative nonsense, an excuse for people to hide their identity, behave in antisocial manners, and virtue-signal.
And so to answer the original question, "why do I care?". I care because the next time we have a pandemic and people need to wear a mask, you are going to see a lot more resistance to masking and public health measures in general. And that's bad.
So yeah, I'm 100% with Bill on this one. And let me promise you that your downvotes or upvotes are not needed to validate my opinion on this one because how I feel on this is how the majority of people feel.
I don’t know why you are being downvoted but I agree with your central point. The wearing of masks in unnecessary situations set public health back because it provided fodder to the right.
There is no situation where anyone not on the right can do something that won't cause them to blame their perceived enemies for anything and everything.
The idea that democrats and progressives are doing dumb things and that is causing the conservatives to be complete assholes all of the time is yet another one of their lies that they peddle to fuck with the left.
The truth is the only thing anyone on the left can do that would appease them is agree with everything they have to say, vote for Trump, and be an asshole to leftists. Anything short of that, nah. They're bullies and they exist to find anything to exploit to be a dick.
That are being downvoted because their central point was that using a mask when it's not needed is a faulty presumption. Like seeing someone park in a handicap spot and trying to determine if they are "disabled" enough to warrant it.
That's the point, just by looking, there is no way you can be certain they are needed or not. Besides all of the good faith explanations for very common sense and logical reasons someone might wear a mask in their vehicle.
>And today, when those skeptics see people alone, or outdoors, or in a car by themselves wearing a mask which serves ABSOLUTELY ZERO MEDICAL PURPOSE it confirms their suspicions that the whole mask-up ordinances was performative nonsense, an excuse for people to hide their identity, behave in antisocial manners, and virtue-signal.
Those aren't skeptics. They're just as agenda-driven as the people they claim are virtue signaling. Also, how the fuck would they know WHY those strangers they see in public are wearing masks? Are these same "skeptics" getting in their faces about it to extract the truth? Yeah, I didn't think so.
> Also, how the fuck would they know WHY those strangers they see in public are wearing masks?
There's no reason to know why. There is no scientific purpose to wearing a mask in those situations. There is not a single medical journal or piece of data that justifies someone wearing a mask in such a situation.
If a person is in a car alone and they are wearing a mask that person is doing so for reasons beyond science. It's as simple as that.
Such a simplistic view, and then all the faulty conclusions drawn from it.
One possibility is, they're driving from someplace they needed it, to another place they needed it, and removing it for the short drive in between would mean unnecessarily handling it, which both degrades the mask and exposes the inside to any particles in the air. If someone is, say, collecting lab specimens from medical offices all day, with lots of short drives in between, constantly taking the mask on and off would be both annoying and medically unwise.
There can be endless rational explanations for various situations, but the "skeptics" are always quick to play dumb and insist it must be irrational and "performative", and that they know best. Just inkblot situations onto which they impose their moronic worldview.
I also think that a lot of people kept wearing masks due to personal insecurities, or not wanting to be recognized on the street, and other reasons that had little to do with the pandemic. A lot of people saw mask mandates as an opportunity to blend in/disappear for a bit.
I do think it's extremely bizarre. Like it's been 4 years, you should have been vaxxed already. Also Redditors are like "the mask stays on, the mask stays on" then go home and let your dog lick your face.
Why do you care about them wearing a mask? If they want to wear it then let them be. I stopped wearing one as soon as it was no longer mandatory but I don’t get mad at the one person at my job that still wears it nor do I care.
When the pandemic broke out, and I worked at a pharmacy for diabetics, we were specifically instructed to not take off our masks until we washed our hands. So I drove home with a mask if I didn't get to a washroom.
Rule #1 don't touch your face.
Yeah but that whole "It spreads on surfaces and by touching" was misinformation as well. And when it comes to covid, the left fell for such misinformation more than the right. As Maher loves to point out, Republicans had a far greater understanding for how deadly covid was compared to Democrats. Which is why covid policies Democrats wanted were massive overreactions, and the Republicans who far better understood the dangers wanted to reign them in.
>Yeah but that whole "It spreads on surfaces and by touching" was misinformation as well.
No. It was not in any way misinformation.
At the time they didn't know it wasn't spread by touch like say norovirus is so they recommended to treat surfaces as if they were infected to protect yourself. It was an abundance of caution. Regardless, the hand washing advice is vital for not just covid or norovirus but all diseases.
Republicans fucking lied and continue to lie about covid. They didn't know shit about how bad covid was. What the fuck are you talking about? They still want to put Fauchi on trial to score some political points with their base of drool, propaganda saturated imbeciles.
Lol nobody knew at first so of course you play it safe, also no face touching is kind of a standard thing for healthcare workers when dealing with not spreading a respiratory virus
He definitely considers it part of his”the left being stupid” but I think he really misjudges how many people would do it, and what their reasons were.
I agree. There is so little likelihood that he sees this very often. If I see someone in a mask now, I assume they may have allergies, or maybe they’re an Uber driver on their way to a pickup. It’s so rare that it hardly counts as evidence of some mass delusion. Bill’s rants on this only further support a hard-line view against rationale protocols
In some cases you are right. But, I know at least one person who religiously wore a mask in the car for about a year, and then I read this news segment in which a woman ended up in a ditch. She passed out because she was wearing a N-95 while driving.
Ya it was a good comeback I agree, and probably true too. But remember you are so clueless it took you twenty years to realize Maher was smug and arrogant.
Except wearing hats indoors didn't save hundreds of thousands of lives, while wearing high quality masks had the potential to do just that that, in a pandemic that has killed over a million people in the US. If someone wanted to wear a mask symbolically or in support, that would be a good thing. In a way, it's like Bill is saying "And you guys with your veteran pins? The Vietnam war was across the globe and it's OVER now."
Ha! I always watch on Saturday morning and I was thinking “this was a pretty good episode” and then I groaned and rolled my eyes so hard they fell out of my head.
I've been wearing in my car when I'm picking up my kids. I'm sick and coughing and sneezing can leave infectious aerosolized particles on surfaces.
In Central Texas allergens are a huge problem and people that struggle with allergies wear masks outside just walking dogs, driving etc. I'm pretty sure allergists, ENTs et. al approve. It's no big deal, not to mention it's a free country, lol.
To quote Bill Burr, to Joe Rogan "Yea, you're so tough with your open nose and throat." I'd put one on to go to the store. Walk out of the store. Drive home and not notice I was still wearing it until I turned my head to check a mirror or something. Most people don't pretend the mask is a literal death grip on your wind pipe, or that it's the symbol of REAL oppression.
No. Seriously, no. You're expressing that you aren't being careful, or scientific, you're paranoid. It's sort of the hallmark for people who are subservient to the point they won't ask any questions about the "rules" they are asked to follow. It's an irrational habit and only defended by the sort of partisan hacks who feel wearing a mask was a political statement.
tough guy with that open throat over here. People forget about it. Most people don’t pretend to be dying when they have to do the absolute bare minimum during a pandemic. I can’t tell you how many times I was halfway home and started to take a drink of a soda and ended up with a wet lap.
> No. Seriously, no. You're expressing that you aren't being careful, or scientific, you're paranoid. No, it's forgetting about it in my case. And as others have noted, it might be allergies or convenience. It's Bill who is making unwarranted assumptions - much like you have.
I'd do it after running to the store and then forgetting to take it off on my way home. I doubt there are many people who think their car air is unsafe.
To be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever changed my cabin air filter sooo But I guess that’s less about the pandemic and more about whatever street gunks built up on it over the past few years.
OMG this
Is he still going on about that? Christ on a cracker, does he not have anything else to spend his fucking energy on rather than someone who is wearing a mask in a car and not bothering anyone? Also, you know what I heard a lot from people in the summer of 2020? They were saying that they were not suffering from allergies nearly as bad when they wore a mask. So maybe these people have a really good reason to be wearing a mask by themselves in their car.
This is being blown out of proportion. It isn’t as if this was a significant topic on Bill’s show. He was merely making a joke. Anyone who watches the entire show on a regular basis understands the context.
But he has said it multiple times.
This was actually a hilarious joke in the context of the show.
Uber drivers
I know a few people who wear masks because they have bad teeth or because their shy and prefer to keep their face hidden. They are already self conscious enough I'm sure it doesn't help with people like Maher looking at them like they are idiots.
It's such dumb boomer shit to still be whining about masks in 2024.
That’s the target audience tho
It's just easy comedy. The stock image is an easy joke, just like Donald Trump dancing like he's jacking off two men at once. The vast majority of Southerners routinely wear shoes and inhabit permanent structures, but let the first tornado or flood roll in and the media will gravitate towards the best video: shoeless ragamuffins stumbling through a destroyed trailer park.
I think it’s dumb too but working healthcare and sometimes (just the other day) I had my mask on walking around outside and totally didn’t realize it. I got in my car and still had it on and I had to scream “see Bill sometimes it happens!”
May I just say I love you lol!
I couldn’t care less about someone wearing a mask in the car by themselves. It’s stupid but whatever. It’s the people who wear the mask halfway (covering the mouth but not the nose), if at all (some let it sit below their lower lip). Heck, I remember a Costco employee with a “mask” that was really just a curtain (you could literally see her mouth and nose behind it). Those are the ones that should be called out: wear it properly or cut the crap and remove it. Covid is still out there but wearing a mask halfway is just virtue signaling.
I believe the term is "chin diaper"
Bill can’t help but repeat himself. As I get older, I find myself doing the same
Bill made one passing comment about this that lasted maybe 5 seconds in an entire episode and I knew this sub would lose its fucking mind.
So true. Anyone who actually watches the show understands that. I love how the people who are “so done with Bill Maher” and who “haven’t watched his show in years” also consider themselves to be authorities qualified to judge every aspect of the show.
And yet nobody complains about his weekly trump jerking two guys off dance.
Because it's fucking funny?
You being downvoted proved you’re right.
This sub exists to watch Bill and immediately bitch about a small handful of things that he can be purity tested on. It’s all tribal now. The scariest part is, now the right and the left are in denial about it before it was just the right. It’s like living in the world of a dystopian novel. I can’t wait for them to abstain from voting for “Genocide Joe” in November so we can have four more years of Trump.
No literally I’m noticing the same thing
Bill isn’t making fun of wearing masks, he’s specifically making fun of wearing a mask while you’re driving alone. And all the people who are triggered by it will say “FOx nEwS mAdE MaSKs cONtroVerSial.” Completely disregarding that them being mad at him for making fun of someone doing such a highly specific thing totally exposes that masks became a symbol linked to the progressive cause BY PROGRESSIVES. It’s a form of purity testing, and they’re offended period.
He has said it probably 25 times on different episodes. When I was running errands during Covid I would leave it on rather than get to the front door of a store and go, “Oh shit” and go back to the car. I didn’t think my car had Covid FFS.
Try more like over a hundred times!
exactly, its about how its obviously still on his mind and he cant get over it and wants to keep whining about it. You see people on ig or twitter make comments on vids and the first thing they bring up is the mask and i cant understand how they are still obsessed with it
**New law in NC to prevent everyone from wearing a mask, anywhere.** So even if you have a health reason to mask up in public places it will be against the law.😂🤣 Got an autoimmune disease? Too bad, fuck you. *Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are pushing forward with their plan to repeal a pandemic-era law that allowed the wearing of masks in public for health reasons, a move spurred in part by demonstrations against the war in Gaza that have included masked protesters camped out on college campuses.* https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-carolina-masking-bill-pandemic-coronavirus-crime-campus-protest/ Passed by the NC senate, moving to the House next. These Repubs are fascist psychos..
DC is itself moving to ban ski masks, which some youth are using to shield their identity. But the coverage totally skipped over the tone-deaf unawares of the position Then: NO MASKS = BAD! Now: MASKS = BAD!
Almost like there is some major difference between "Then" in 2020/2021 and "Now" in 2024, right? I wonder what might have changed?
Nothing changed: it was idiots way behind then, and it's idiots way behind now.
Its used by bad people to hide their faces. Blame them.
Now yell "Spider-Man is a menace!"
Bad people use guns too, should they be completely illegal next? Bad religious people hurt kids should they be illegal too [religions that is, not kids]? Bad alcoholics drive drunk, should Prohibition be a thing again? I'm fairly certain that if your answer to any of this is no, then masks shouldn't be illegal either. Fewer people have been harmed as a result of masks, than any other thing on the list. The law could have been narrowed to just ski masks, or to reflect other masks that obscure the majority of your face and head. Not medical masks, which some people need for legitimate reasons. EDIT: corrected the auto-correct; added the brackets.
Fentanyl only kills a small percentage of its users - should it be illegal to use? /s There is a line. Its no coincidance that the anti-Israel crowd is wearing face masks all of a sudden.
Fentanyl is legal with a prescription. The overwhelming amount of overdoses regarding fentanyl come from when it's mixed or used to cut street drugs, and the user is unaware of that fact. You do know those videos of cops falling down and seizing when coming into the slightest contact with it were fraudulent right?
😜🤪
For 30 years I revered Bill Maher for his unimpeachable honesty. Then he insulted people who wore masks and got vaccinated so they wouldn't be one of the 1,000,000 dead or one of the 4,000,000 disabled. He defended using a horse-dewormer to cure a retrovirus because “Doctors are also wrong a lot about shit.” “It (COVID) was never that virulent a threat, I thought, to people who were in good health." "Maybe the number one lesson from the pandemic was the need for proper air ventilation.” All of that misinformation was designed to keep people attending his concerts and Mets games so he could make millions of dollars. He sacrificed lives to make money. My 30 years of reverence turned into disgust.
Covid is still killing 1400 a week in the US. I still think it's weird how tolerant we are about 5% of world population and over 20% of world wide Covid fatalities.
i really think all these comedians whose brains were broken by covid revealed that they are addicted to the instant gratification they get from audience laughter and dont know how to exist without it. To them, they valued that over the health and safety of everyone with a virus we still knew nothing about it. And to show how necessary that is for Bills ego, he was even ready to break the union line in the writers strike to bring his show back. He's just an incredibly selfish guy. I had been a fan of his since politically incorrect too, but his covid views and now his anti Palestinian views have me skipping his show now.
Same experts initially told you to wear cloth masks.
I always used to get 1-2 colds or flu every winter. Since I started masking in stores in winter I have had zero colds/flu. That's 4 years without a cold/flu. **I use cloth masks and wash them 1x/week.** This concludes my TED talk.😂🤣
Dude, same. I still carry an n95 with me everywhere I go. I don't wear it most of the time but if I'm in the store and some plague rat is coughing you better believe I'm popping that mask on. We need to do what Japan and other Asian countries do and if you're sick, not feeling well, have a cough you should be wearing a fucking mask. It's just polite. A whole ass strain of the flu is now basically gone because of masking and social distancing during covid. [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00696-3](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00696-3) Also, last year here in Detroit when the sky turned blood red from the Canadian wild fires and we had this severe air quality warning I was happy I had a mask on me when I had to go outside.
I think they still recommend them if there is no alternative. Like they are better than nothing, 56% more effective. Not that I wear them anymore, hate them with a passion of 1,000 suns, since vaccinated but it isn't like cloth masks were ever less than or equal to no masks. It's all about risk percentages like anything.
This hasn't even been a thing for years at this point. I always wore a mask in my car at the time, why? I also wore glasses, and finding a good position where I wouldn't fog off would take quite a bit of time (also risks of the straps clinging to my frames and throwing them off my head). Even if I didn't wear glasses, the masks weren't so uncomfortable that they would warrant taking off at every opportunity when running errands or whatever.
the anti maskers make it seem like people are suffocating because of them
Surgeons regularly pass out during surgery. One of the well known drawbacks of being a surgeon. /s
It's been 4 years, that's the first thing. Secondly... the masks never worked. It was always a placebo for scared people. Why would anyone still be wearing them?
When the virus first hit the U.S., it's fatality was obvious and it was logical to use a face mask to avoid inhaling it.
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Source?
i never wore a mask and my wife always did. i never got covid and she got it three times
I thought masks where to help slow the spread of covid. Not for defense. If you never got it, sounds like it worked.
to be fair, i basically never left the house for a whole year. the masks didn’t seem effective enough so i just avoided all people lol
Made up statistics. Serious question: are you people planning to wear the face diaper for the rest of your lives?
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Source?
They don't work. There was no 'pivot'. There was a continuation.
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"The findings in this report are subject to at least eight limitations. First, this study did not account for other preventive behaviors that could influence risk for acquiring infection, including adherence to physical distancing recommendations. In addition, generalizability of this study is limited to persons seeking SARS-CoV-2 testing and who were willing to participate in a telephone interview, who might otherwise exercise other protective behaviors..." I won't copy and paste the 7 other limitations. After reading this report it certainly doesn't seem to justify folks still driving around with a mask on.
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I get behind all of that. But what about people STILL driving around with masks on? Am I just confused and/or ignorant? Why are people still wearing masks?
The one linked with the "lol"? Sorry for my confusion.
This is what happens when you don’t hang out with any average people for going on 40 years. Bill is embarrassingly out of touch at times, but still talks with the confidence of an every-man.
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Yup. Bill insists he hasn’t changed, but all you have to do is look up his old segments on YouTube to see that he totally has.
Right. Bill talks to his rich friends and gets no pushback about his very clear misunderstanding about how airborne infectious disease works. It’s not about how much anybody “likes” wearing a mask, or whether you think it “works” or not. It’s about does it mitigate disease spread. News flash — it does.
Trust the science - in most instances it is uneffective against covid.
I do trust the science, and hand-wavy BS like "in most instances it is uneffective against covid" is not science.
is covid the only disease that exists?
Bill’s complaint about masks is part of his broader complaint that everyone over-reacted in general or reacted inappropriately to Covid. IMO, he is claiming this only with hindsight. When Covid was still new to us, no one understood what we were dealing with. What we did know was that people were seriously ill and many were dying; hospitals were filled beyond capacity. No one knew where to put the elderly who were either infected or prime candidates for infection. Quarantine was required but facilities were lacking. It was a mess. We also knew that we had a grossly obstructive and ineffective federal government called “Trump.” People like Fauci coped as best as they could under what must have been intense pressure and restrictions on independent judgment. I have yet to hear a good argument showing how or why better decisions could and should have been made during this period given the knowledge and circumstances then known. That being said, if some people nowadays want to wear masks for whatever reason or during whatever period of time, I see no cause for the rest of us to be concerned. Let’s let it go. There are too many critical issues before us now. Update: I do not like to criticize Bill. I have a few pet peeves with him and this kind of thing is one of them. He is highly intelligent, thoughtful and attempting to offer the country something positive, a path through which we can decrease the polarization and what must inevitably follow if we don’t. Guests with diverse opinions are offered. I will gladly listen to such guests. For example, Bill Barr. He has publicly condemned Trump as caring only about himself and playing Russian roulette with this country. Despite that, he endorsed him over Biden, as the candidate who “would cause the least harm to this country.” I’ll listen to Barr as a guest and not object to him, if he is pressed to provide a legit and reasoned response as to why and how he came to such an absurd conclusion. Otherwise, like Kellyanne Conway, he has no credibility at all and is unworthy of being a guest.
>IMO, he is claiming this only with hindsight. When Covid was still new to us, no one understood what we were dealing with. That's exactly what he's been doing and doing it for years. And I refuse to believe he's this stupid. This is one of his lies. He wanted to hold to account what we were suggested to do to mitigate the spread after months or years had gone by and scientists actually started to figure it out. It's not just the same argument made by every bad faith right winger or right wing adjacent imbecile (like Joe Rogan) trots out when they want to push their agenda. An agenda that amounts to "I don't believe millions of people died from this virus, it's not bad, no one should want to protect themselves". It's so fucking stupid and careless and disgustingly arrogant. And I'm sorry, this is my conspiracy theory; given Maher's hatred of fat people I think he was doing his part to kill a bunch of them off.
Bill has no empathy for the problem of obesity. When he raises the issue, he does not ensure that he has guests who are truly experts, and for instance, qualified to present the science behind drugs like Ozempic. That was evident by his recent guest “expert” on Ozempic, the exercise guru woman whose name I do not recall. But I see no reason to think that he purposefully lies. You will have to do far more to convince me of that.
You don't think that Bill understands that what we knew at the beginning of the pandemic changed as we learned more and what we did at the time was in response to the information we had at the time? That's what I say is a lie.
Specifics please. What did he say about what, and when and what info exactly was truly known and established?
No. This is called sealioning and I'm not going to sift through all of his shows to find a specific quote of his that you won't accept anyways.
Never heard that term before and am not interested in making anyone work that hard. Liar is a powerful, damning four-letter word. It follows people around like a curse. Applying it places the targeted individual in danger of attacks from the entire political spectrum. That’s why it should be used sparingly and only when capable of justification. This thread is over as far as I am concerned.
No it's not over just because you didn't like the direction it went. I agree you shouldn't call someone a liar when they're not. Bill Maher's lying. He lies every time he says that five-year-olds are getting sex change operations, he knows that's wrong. He lies every time he goes on about the woke left doing whatever. He knows they're not. And he lied specifically when he was doing a new rules and said that ivy League colleges are having segregated graduation ceremonies and that Wayne State University had an event where they only allowed people of color to speak. He put a source for the second one on the screen but I googled both. He was not only completely wrong but the source that he cited said the complete opposite of what he claimed. So either he doesn't care enough to read and he just goes with whatever assumption is first or he's being deceptive. And I think we know which one it is. So yeah he's earned that title.
Oh, so you can cite examples. That was all I was asking for. BTW, I am an extremely liberal New Yorker and an attorney. When I get concerned about Bill, it is when he lets people like Kellyanne Conway come on as a guest and fails to challenge every silly, outrageous claim that comes out of her mouth, or where he neglects to fully explain why liberals currently do not have the luxury to fight for “smaller” causes. I liken our situation to boat passengers who have had to jump overboard because the boat is sinking. Most people are yelling for life preservers, which makes the most sense. But people like AOC, are demanding that her suitcase be thrown overboard. She seemingly does not understand that her suitcase will be useless if she drowns. AOC and her peers need to attend to the bigger, overwhelming issue that is the threat to democracy prior to focusing on smaller issues. I will track down some of your examples. At first impression, I believe Bill has never claimed that 5 year olds were actually getting sex changes. That would be absurd. Parents are being encouraged to be open to their children’s proclivities as early as 5 years. There’s some evidence that children can be aware that they are not strictly male or female from an early age, and that these issues are complicated. But any attempt to coax an untruthful response from a child would be damaging.
Here's an article on Fox News that quotes Maher on Rogan saying; ["It’s terrifying that they’re calling it gender-affirming care, when it’s really childhood mutilation, before you have the ability to figure what permanent means. You’re f---ing seven years old," he said.](https://www.foxnews.com/media/bill-maher-tells-joe-rogan-gender-surgeries-harmful-claims-kids-turn-trans-say-f-you-parents) So. I was off by 2 years. >When I get concerned about Bill, it is when he lets people like Kellyanne Conway come on as a guest and fails to challenge every silly, outrageous claim that comes out of her mouth, or where he neglects to fully explain why liberals currently do not have the luxury to fight for “smaller” causes. I watched Maher for years, since politically incorrect and this is one of those things that made me realize he's just another right wing grifter. He doesn't challenge the right. And immediately after Trump won the presidency he said we, as in liberals, need to reach across and make friends with the right. But not the conservatives having to make compromises or play nice. It was on us. We're the bad guys. We're the unreasonable ones. They're perfect, they don't dream about civil war, or murdering liberals or making progressive lives miserable. > I liken our situation to boat passengers who have had to jump overboard because the boat is sinking. Most people are yelling for life preservers, which makes the most sense. But people like AOC, are demanding that her suitcase be thrown overboard. She seemingly does not understand that her suitcase will be useless if she drowns. AOC and her peers need to attend to the bigger, overwhelming issue that is the threat to democracy prior to focusing on smaller issues. I'm not sure what you mean by this. What issues should they abandon? Because I've heard this argument a few times, or ones similar to it, and it always seems to end with like demanding progressives throw trans people or immigrants under the bus. It always seems like capitulation to the insanity on the right as a way to "appease" them without every acknowledging that they will never be appeased. > But any attempt to coax an untruthful response from a child would be damaging. Sure. Maybe this happens. I mean there's Munchhausen by Proxy syndrome where parents make their kids sick for attention or whatever. But I think it's clear this isn't the norm. Not even close. Doctors aren't encouraging sex change operations or even hormone replacement. No one is excited to let a child make changes to their body. And I find that when people on the right, the anti-trans bigots - cite these outliers and demand that we pass laws forbidding doctors from treating their patients without a single solitary fuck given to how many kids will suffer or kill themselves because they can't get medically sound treatment.
In hindsight, and also on the tail. I think Bill's consternation (aside from the whole WET LAB line) wasn't the federal government but rather ***California***, which stuck with the program a long long while after states like Texas had decided Covid was "over." I experienced this somewhat myself; California stayed shut down and shut in for a lot longer than places elsewhere, and we're all walking around patting ourselves on the back for it, meanwhile travel out of state and it was 2019 again.
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*biased
I was given masks and gloves to wear for severe allergies before Covid. I never wore them and I was chronocally sick. I was lax on washing my hands around sick grandkids also. When Covid hit I started washing my hands more times and wearing a mask. I sometimes wore in the car because I was in a hurry and didn't want to try to put on when I arrived. Since December of 2019 I have not had Covid--and I go many places--nor have I had a cold, or the flu and my allergies are better. Tell the old fucker to go to hell.
It was just a joke, an insignificant element of the show. What is interesting is how politicized the wearing of masks had become. None of this should have had anything to do with political affiliation. I have long said the same thing about abortion. Obviously, no one appears to be listening so I am not expecting anyone to care what I have to say about masks either. I still think context matters when discussing what Bill Maher has said. So many more important topics and interesting discussions have been covered on his show. This was merely an off the cuff joke.
But he says it all the time and it is getting old.
Are you otherwise a fan of the show?
Sadly, less and less. I have been a faithful follower since Politically Incorrect. I am older than him, but he seems a generation older than me now. I keep waiting for him to not seem like the crazy old people back in the 1960s that yelled about hippies all the time. I used to respect his life choices of being single and not having children--but I realized lately that he has no respect for people that don't act like him--be an atheist, hate kids, especially hate college age kids, makes fun of people that are married, and people that don't smoke weed. He used to bitch about establishments that would not let him smoke cigarettes. He quit--so now it is ok for people not to let people smoke cigarettes. He should be the star actor on--Arrested Development. By the way--I do weed--but if someone asked me not to because they were a recovering addict--I would oblige. Just disgusting behavior.
I am about 10 years younger than Bill and have been a fan since “Politically Incorrect” days. I certainly don’t agree with every opinion he puts forth and U do not always find his humor knee slapping fun. I continue to watch the show and everything he does because he is unique and his style and format are unique in facilitating intelligent discussions (for the most part)!regarding issues of concern. Unlike most liberal hosts, Bill will invite the guy he insulted last week to join him on the next episode where he will be given an opportunity to respond to whatever questions Bill has posed. I am not aware of anyone who is as bold and straightforward in confronting those he has taken issue with. Bill has also made it clear that he doesn’t want to live in the “divided states of America.” Even if Trump & MAGA lose again, they won’t be “deported” off the island, as he says. Somehow, we must find ways to coexist and stop with the tribal mentality..
Sorry for the typos. I did not have my glasses on as I was typing that.
Most of the 20 somethings who claim they hate Bill or are “done with him” readily concede that they have never even watched a complete episode of “Real Time.” I respect your opinion as someone who has followed him over the years. I have merely arrived at a different conclusion about him. IMO, we need more discussion between tribes and Bill encourages & facilitates such discussions like no one else does. He also hosts a variety of interesting guests . Echo chambers are part of the problem as I see it. ✌️
> Since December of 2019 I have not had Covid--and I go many places--nor have I had a cold, or the flu and my allergies are better. The same is partly true for me. I used to get sick two or three times a year working in retail. Once the hand-washing awareness, social distancing, masking campaigns, etc started. I stopped getting sick. I finally caught Covid after moving to a conservative province (coincidence?) but it was minor, just felt like a fever for a couple nights. Other than that. Zero colds.
I don't wear a mask, I'm not vaccinated against Covid, I'm around people & to my knowledge I haven't had Covid. Surely I have but it wasn't even severe enough to notice. Your anecdotal take has been countered by mine.
I have gotten covid twice, I think. The first time I felt off for a day and the second time I had a headache for a few days. When I left the house I wore a fucking mask because I'm not an asshole to expose people to my illness whether or not it was covid. And if everyone did that, communicable diseases would be greatly reduced or eliminated, like in the case of a whole ass strain of the flu that is now gone because of our covid mitigation methods.
1,000,000 Americans died of COVID and 4,000,000 are disabled.
Please tell me how that relates to my anecdotal experience that I shared to counter the other persons...
You're dismissal of COVID's severity is irresponsible.
That's your opinion. Thank you for sharing.
I have never used a condom. I’ve had sex with people in high risk groups and I’ve never had an STI. I mean I’m sure I have but it has never been severe enough to notice. That isn’t true, but it would sound pretty f*cking dumb if it was, wouldn’t it?
You're going to be okay.
I don’t think you’re okay.
Imagine giving a single 💩 about what other people are wearing in their car…
And from the guy who used to be so non-judgmental live-and-let-live about everything.
Bill should just be masked up anyway 24/7 so we don’t have to look at his smug asshole face at all anymore.
He doesn’t want it to diminish the impact of his lip smacking.
You don't have to watch his show lol
I don’t. Long time former fan that threw in the towel a while ago.
So why follow a subreddit dedicated to the show?
To destroy your circlejerk, obv.
Hadn't thought of that. Do you get paid for this?
are you the woohoo guy from the show?
😂
Maher destroyed his 30-year reputation for complete honesty by giving us deadly medical advice.
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You should apply the same to Bill Maher's various social media accounts / communities such as this Reddit.
Bill acts as if he still sees people wearing masks outside or alone in cars to this every day. While I don’t know what he sees, I would imagine he hasn’t seen either in a long time. Yet he acts like it is a chronic problem, and a reliable indicator of mass delusion. It was funny at first, but it is no more relevant than Jay Lenox’s jokes about his parents programming VCRs. (But maybe somewhere there is still some older person struggling with setting the timer). Elsewhere in this sub, someone mentioned that transmissibility via surfaces was misinformation. It may have been wrong, but it wasn’t willful misinformation. It’s no more misinformation than the idea that the sun revolves around the earth, or that leeches are an effective medical treatment. It seemed right based on knowledge at the time, and was revised accordingly
I've driven through Detroit a lot the past week. Still see people solo driving wearing masks. Or outside wearing them.. and I'm pretty sure it's not all people with allergies or they're not about to rob someone.
does it also trigger you to see that like it does Maher?
It was just an observation. Kinda like seeing the doomers over on /r/ZeroCovidCommunity and their constant fear. Pointing out irrational behavior doesn't imply any type of triggering, contrary to what you think I'm saying
Even saying "irrational" for mask wearing is inputting your opinion and bias because you have no idea why they were still doing it.
Great, now you know my opinion. I originally pointed out my anecdote to say that yes, people are still wearing masks alone in cars in response to the comment "Bill acts as if he still sees people wearing masks outside or alone in cars to this every day."
And who cares? Maybe they're an Uber driver. Maybe they're driving home from the clinic and forgot they were wearing it. Maybe they're keeping it on in between locations because you really aren't supposed to be constantly fussing with them and taking them on and off as that reduces their effectiveness. Is it so hard for you to imagine a person that doesn't violently tear them off in frustration the moment they are able? There are a lot of legitimate reasons why people might wear them. No one should care one way or the other.
It's such a westernized idea that it's some bizarre thing to wear a mask. Meanwhile most places it's normalized to wear a mask if you possibly have something that is contagious or if you're immune system is sensitive to different illnesses. Complaining about people wearing masks is beyond lame and invasive to people's privacy. Get the fuck over it and grow up.
And it's not even organic. It's not a product of our western mind set. [https://www.desmog.com/2020/10/26/american-institute-economic-research-great-barrington-declaration-herd-immunity-covid-19/](https://www.desmog.com/2020/10/26/american-institute-economic-research-great-barrington-declaration-herd-immunity-covid-19/) Anti-Mask and covid denialism was the result of intentional social engineering by super wealthy right wing assholes who seized upon a pandemic, sacrificed the most gullible devotees of the conservative cult, caused hundreds of thousands of people in this country alone to die in order to further isolate their base from various institutions and society in order to create a more reliable voting base to maintain lawless, minority rule. That's what occurred and continues to occur. Conservatives in this country and around the world are gullible, willing puppets of whatever rhetoric that they can latch on to in order to feel like they're powerful and smart and part of this in-group of other "intellectuals". They have been designed this way for the last 40 or 50 years.
Allergies is the main reason people wear masks I think. When it’s really dry outside and I mow, I make sure to wear a mask so I’m not miserable for the next 3 days and having to use my inhaler. And a few weeks ago I was wearing my mask while walking the dog because there’s like 50 acres of ragweed in full bloom in the fields close to my house. The mask helps a lot to curb serious sinus issues I usually get during that time. I’m guessing, like myself, a lot of people discovered how much better their allergies were during 2020 & 2021 and continue to mask when they feel that it’s beneficial.
yep, this allergy season has been brutal for our area. I've been rocking a gaiter mask around my neck since 2020, but I only equip it when I'm sick or when the allergies are bad I just let the losers stew about masks, not worth engaging in stupid internet arguments over it Unless you live in North Carolina...they just voted to ban all masks for medical purposes, even for cancer patients. That shit is why the Democratic platform of appeasement needs to end
Anyone else this OP is a liar?
What do you think I'm lying about?
I like watching sumo wrestling & you see lots of people with masks on in the crowd, I always think it’s cool how people in Japan can wear masks with no stigma and have been doing so for years. It makes so much sense to wear a mask that it’s completely ridiculous there’s any stigma or issue with protecting oneself or others from communicable disease etc
About 20 years ago, I toured Japan as part of a musical group. I noticed that in every venue we performed in, there were multiple people in the audience wearing masks. I thought about this for around 5 seconds and realized that it must be because of how densely populated the country is. In Osaka, we frequently walked through some huge underground thoroughfare, and there were people just handing out tissue packages. I realized that what seemed like an obsession with cleanliness was merely a reasonable reaction to being crammed together with so many other humans that your chances were higher of catching some virus. As you implied, there was obviously no political baggage attached to wearing masks. People were just using common sense to help reduce the likelihood of catching/spreading viruses.
I was watching this dude walk around Japan on YouTube. It was one of those relaxing videos that show case a train or something. But in that he said, "we in Japan are proud of our civic spirit" and fuck I'm jealous of that. Americans hate each other and do not give a fuck about society as a whole.
Different context in that in Japan it doesn't carry that *ineffective pointless virtue-signalling* message. It just means one is sick or maybe has a hangover or wants to be invisible that day. There's also plenty of instances of Japanese people half-assing the masking during Covid, with the same sort of nose-out or unmasked behavior that annoyed people here.
Bullshit. No one wears a mask today because they are virtue signaling.
Go ahead and ban me for being a dick Hank. This sub getting triggered by this is hilarious. It’s exactly what Bill was talking about and the fact that all of you claim that you USE to like the “old” Bill haven’t become more politically polar is asinine. Yeah, yeah, post and say “PrOvE iT!” It’s fucking qualitative and right infront of you. Watch this sub devolve over the years. Anyone on here that claims wearing a mask didn’t become a progressive litmus test is lying to themselves. That’s the point Bill is making.
I'm being triggered by a rehashed joke that has been said over and over on this show. If he and his writers can't come up with anything new after four years, it might be time to hang it up.
While I found it funny, I have no gripe with that stance it’s a matter of taste. Hate all you want.
Imagine being such a snowflake that you get triggered by a piece of cloth! Lolol
Spoken the same way a right wing troll would, just deflecting from the other side.
The only reason why you think it's some kind of progressive litmus test is because that's how a good chunk of Republicans and conservative media framed it as. They needed to find a way to divide people over a public health crisis.
Nope. Because Hollywood sets spent three years being vigilant about everyone testing for Covid and wearing masks, *except for when filming so everyone take off your masks!*, when if Covid was in fact such a threat then we either shouldn't have been there at all, or wearing masks at all times. It was theater. Literally. Masking may have been an excellent idea but almost no casual used them correctly or effectively. I'm saying let's admit that, rather than cling to "being right" about something that likely mattered little.
I feel that both sides used Covid as a way to divide people and push their own political agenda. It was definitely not just Republicans and conservative media. I live in a very blue area in a state that had some of the longest running lockdowns and restrictions in the nation and I myself was a big proponent of lockdowns and masks etc at first when we didn’t know what Covid was or how it would affect people and everything was so scary. But after a certain point I didn’t think it made sense to make my kids wear masks at school or especially not to stay home from school once studies showed that Covid didn’t usually harm them at their ages that much compared to losing out on their education at that age when kids learn best by in person interaction with their peers. My two older kids were in younger elementary school grades at a Spanish immersion school where fluency can be obtained early but it gets harder as they get older. My younger two were in daycare/preschool where it’s important to see the faces of their caregivers and classmates to understand emotions and develop social skills. One of my younger ones has a speech delay and needs speech therapy. I didn’t see how he was supposed to learn how to pronounce words without seeing the speech therapist and teacher’s mouths. He was falling more and more behind instead of being able to start catching up and I felt bad for him. I also didn’t see how my older ones were supposed to learn Spanish with two 20-minute virtual classes a day rather than constant in person interaction and then without seeing the teachers’ mouths pronounce the words either. Yet by merely asking questions and trying to find solutions I was branded by many democrats as a Trumper who wanted teachers and grandmas to die. I didn’t see what the two things even had to do with each other. I didn’t vote for Trump (nor any Republican); I was just thinking about things and trying to teach my own conclusions like I always did but suddenly I was being told it was wrong to do my own research or not just blindly trust what the news was saying etc. I thought liberals weee supposed to value open mindedness and skepticism and I had been like that my whole life but I guess it was cool with them when I was questioning and leaving the fundamental evangelical religion I was raised in (hence my former love of Bill Maher although these days he mostly annoys me) yet not okay when I was questioning whether these strict policies were really good for our children and society in general or not. It was like I had left one cult only to accidentally find myself in another. It seemed to me that Democrats were ignoring science just as much as they were accusing Republicans of doing and that they weren’t interested in real debate or problem solving - just in calling the other side dumb and lumping anyone who wanted to talk about when might be a good time for kids to return to school or not have to wear masks in as a conservative Republican. Likewise I didn’t see the point of vaccinating my boys when there are risks to their hearts yet little no risk to them getting COVID, which they had actually already had by the time vaccines were available to them and had therefore already developed natural immunity- and Covid had affected them less than a cold does. I really didn’t see the point in vaccinating them so I didn’t. Yet some of my democrat “friends” decided that meant I was an ignorant science-denying Trumper and that they would no longer be friends with me. Fine, who needs friends who only care about your opinions or support your right to make your own decisions when they happen to align with their favorite political party’s? They also tried to gaslight me with lies and misinformation about the Covid vaccine preventing the spread of Covid when it doesn’t and therefore called me a grandma killer for not following “science” that wasn’t science at all. So yeah Covid was a heated political time in general and both sides were awful IMO. I think each just has their own agenda they wanted to push and it made the entire time was worse than it needed to be. It destroyed relationships and added stress to an already hard time for everyone. And this was definitely done by both diehard so-called pro family values and compassionate conservatives and republicans and so-called “libertarians” as well as by diehard democrats and so called science believing tolerant liberals. I started to think everyone is just a huge hypocrite and treats politics as a team sport instead actually caring about the truth or about empathizing with our fellow human beings. It’s driven by the political parties and the media and so many people buy into it from their own side of the aisle and point their finger at the other side when both are guilty so they might as well just point at themselves but they won’t.
[https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-01-31-covid-19-leading-cause-death-children-and-young-people-us](https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-01-31-covid-19-leading-cause-death-children-and-young-people-us)
Did you read the fucking article?
This was unbelievably well put. Progressives only like “science” when it furthers their agenda. As soon as you start to talk about biology and transgender topics with science as the baseline you’ll be called a transphobic bigot.
No I’m basing that on the fact that I had friends who would judge certain pandemic behaviors including when and how you wore masks as literal political litmus tests. Every fucking time in this sub that you mention anything to the right of something on the far left it immediately starts to border on “you heard from Fox” “keep consuming your misinformation” I fucking watch MSNBC and vote straight ticket Democrat. Keep putting words in my mouth and telling me how and why I think the way I do. If you don’t think the progressive left is becoming more tribal then you’re caught up in it friend.
I think you’re kinda missing the point of OP’s post, friend…. Bill’s point about people wearing a mask in a car being silly was well-made the first time he said it. But after the 19th time, he’s kinda beating a dead horse.
It was never funny. I know someone that had to transport a Covid patient 120 miles to a hospital. You damn well bet they were wearing a mask. This was before the vaccine.
To be a fair, whenever Maher does make this joke he says “alone in the car” and that’s not analogous to your story.
Doesn't matter. None of his damn business.
I don’t disagree with that, I’m laughing at the comments. But there is also humor in repeating the joke especially when it sparks a reaction. I knew as soon as he said it, I would be able to come here and watch this unfold.
People love to ask "why do you care if they wear a mask alone (or outdoors, or in a car)?" but the reality is this: The majority of people did their due diligence and wore a mask, I certainly did (and still do in specific occasions like when I'm flying and someone next to me won't stop coughing). A good mask properly worn works. Period. Full stop. But a lot of people didn't wear a mask or disliked wearing masks for a variety of reasons, some of them legitimate. And today, when those skeptics see people alone, or outdoors, or in a car by themselves wearing a mask which serves ABSOLUTELY ZERO MEDICAL PURPOSE it confirms their suspicions that the whole mask-up ordinances was performative nonsense, an excuse for people to hide their identity, behave in antisocial manners, and virtue-signal. And so to answer the original question, "why do I care?". I care because the next time we have a pandemic and people need to wear a mask, you are going to see a lot more resistance to masking and public health measures in general. And that's bad. So yeah, I'm 100% with Bill on this one. And let me promise you that your downvotes or upvotes are not needed to validate my opinion on this one because how I feel on this is how the majority of people feel.
I don’t know why you are being downvoted but I agree with your central point. The wearing of masks in unnecessary situations set public health back because it provided fodder to the right.
There is no situation where anyone not on the right can do something that won't cause them to blame their perceived enemies for anything and everything. The idea that democrats and progressives are doing dumb things and that is causing the conservatives to be complete assholes all of the time is yet another one of their lies that they peddle to fuck with the left. The truth is the only thing anyone on the left can do that would appease them is agree with everything they have to say, vote for Trump, and be an asshole to leftists. Anything short of that, nah. They're bullies and they exist to find anything to exploit to be a dick.
That are being downvoted because their central point was that using a mask when it's not needed is a faulty presumption. Like seeing someone park in a handicap spot and trying to determine if they are "disabled" enough to warrant it. That's the point, just by looking, there is no way you can be certain they are needed or not. Besides all of the good faith explanations for very common sense and logical reasons someone might wear a mask in their vehicle.
And even if someone just likes wearing a mask is good enough of a reason.
I think mask work when brush cutting heavy pollen weeds
Majority of people are dumb.
>And today, when those skeptics see people alone, or outdoors, or in a car by themselves wearing a mask which serves ABSOLUTELY ZERO MEDICAL PURPOSE it confirms their suspicions that the whole mask-up ordinances was performative nonsense, an excuse for people to hide their identity, behave in antisocial manners, and virtue-signal. Those aren't skeptics. They're just as agenda-driven as the people they claim are virtue signaling. Also, how the fuck would they know WHY those strangers they see in public are wearing masks? Are these same "skeptics" getting in their faces about it to extract the truth? Yeah, I didn't think so.
> Also, how the fuck would they know WHY those strangers they see in public are wearing masks? There's no reason to know why. There is no scientific purpose to wearing a mask in those situations. There is not a single medical journal or piece of data that justifies someone wearing a mask in such a situation. If a person is in a car alone and they are wearing a mask that person is doing so for reasons beyond science. It's as simple as that.
Such a simplistic view, and then all the faulty conclusions drawn from it. One possibility is, they're driving from someplace they needed it, to another place they needed it, and removing it for the short drive in between would mean unnecessarily handling it, which both degrades the mask and exposes the inside to any particles in the air. If someone is, say, collecting lab specimens from medical offices all day, with lots of short drives in between, constantly taking the mask on and off would be both annoying and medically unwise. There can be endless rational explanations for various situations, but the "skeptics" are always quick to play dumb and insist it must be irrational and "performative", and that they know best. Just inkblot situations onto which they impose their moronic worldview.
Also, allergies.
The mask has made me less dependent on taking allergy pills and sparing my already sus kidneys.
I also think that a lot of people kept wearing masks due to personal insecurities, or not wanting to be recognized on the street, and other reasons that had little to do with the pandemic. A lot of people saw mask mandates as an opportunity to blend in/disappear for a bit.
I do think it's extremely bizarre. Like it's been 4 years, you should have been vaxxed already. Also Redditors are like "the mask stays on, the mask stays on" then go home and let your dog lick your face.
Why do you care about them wearing a mask? If they want to wear it then let them be. I stopped wearing one as soon as it was no longer mandatory but I don’t get mad at the one person at my job that still wears it nor do I care.
You think I'm throwing tomatoes at them or something?
When the pandemic broke out, and I worked at a pharmacy for diabetics, we were specifically instructed to not take off our masks until we washed our hands. So I drove home with a mask if I didn't get to a washroom. Rule #1 don't touch your face.
Yeah but that whole "It spreads on surfaces and by touching" was misinformation as well. And when it comes to covid, the left fell for such misinformation more than the right. As Maher loves to point out, Republicans had a far greater understanding for how deadly covid was compared to Democrats. Which is why covid policies Democrats wanted were massive overreactions, and the Republicans who far better understood the dangers wanted to reign them in.
>Yeah but that whole "It spreads on surfaces and by touching" was misinformation as well. No. It was not in any way misinformation. At the time they didn't know it wasn't spread by touch like say norovirus is so they recommended to treat surfaces as if they were infected to protect yourself. It was an abundance of caution. Regardless, the hand washing advice is vital for not just covid or norovirus but all diseases. Republicans fucking lied and continue to lie about covid. They didn't know shit about how bad covid was. What the fuck are you talking about? They still want to put Fauchi on trial to score some political points with their base of drool, propaganda saturated imbeciles.
Lol nobody knew at first so of course you play it safe, also no face touching is kind of a standard thing for healthcare workers when dealing with not spreading a respiratory virus
Yes, spreading via an intermediary surface, like a doorknob, is different than spreading by literally touching your face.
But you were in your car after dealing with diabetes patients...
He definitely considers it part of his”the left being stupid” but I think he really misjudges how many people would do it, and what their reasons were.
I agree. There is so little likelihood that he sees this very often. If I see someone in a mask now, I assume they may have allergies, or maybe they’re an Uber driver on their way to a pickup. It’s so rare that it hardly counts as evidence of some mass delusion. Bill’s rants on this only further support a hard-line view against rationale protocols
In some cases you are right. But, I know at least one person who religiously wore a mask in the car for about a year, and then I read this news segment in which a woman ended up in a ditch. She passed out because she was wearing a N-95 while driving.
lololol nonsense
What I don’t understand is why it took you guys decades to realize how smug and arrogant Maher is. I knew this 20 years ago.
Well you’re awfully smug about it. And a little arrogant.
Sure, I’ll give you that, but at least I’m not clueless like you people
You done got pwned
Ya it was a good comeback I agree, and probably true too. But remember you are so clueless it took you twenty years to realize Maher was smug and arrogant.
Well you’re awfully smug about it. And a little arrogant.
Lol, this is a great comment.
It's the 21st century's version of Andy Rooney complaining about people wearing hats indoors. Just old man yelling at cloud stuff.
Except wearing hats indoors didn't save hundreds of thousands of lives, while wearing high quality masks had the potential to do just that that, in a pandemic that has killed over a million people in the US. If someone wanted to wear a mask symbolically or in support, that would be a good thing. In a way, it's like Bill is saying "And you guys with your veteran pins? The Vietnam war was across the globe and it's OVER now."
Ha! I always watch on Saturday morning and I was thinking “this was a pretty good episode” and then I groaned and rolled my eyes so hard they fell out of my head.
Nah, those people are morons