Of course, it's political.

Advocating or opposing wearing a mask seems, like so many other things, to split generally between leftists and conservatives.

It's not a completely accurate description, but for the most part, leftists favor wearing of masks, sometimes even in ridiculous situations.  It's logical for them to do that since, except when attacking Trump and his followers, the legacy media have been essentially all-COVID-all-the-time for the past year.  Since leftists control the media, they're naturally going to advocate eating their own dog food (even when they cheat and ignore their own rules). 

On the other hand, many conservatives habitually doubt the media and as a result are forced to do their own research.  They're finding data that make them skeptical of most of the COVID narrative.  Others — people who are perhaps centrists or consider themselves apolitical — presumably wear masks because they believe the media and are truly afraid or they think they are doing the honorable thing.  Some people comply out of peer pressure or because they need access to certain shopping or to be able to board public transportation, including aircraft.

In the wake of it all, there are instances where people have been called upon to pledge to wear masks.  But even as states begin to ease up on restrictions, and the credibility of public health organizations continues to evaporate, one Democrat outfit — StopRepublicans.org — recently issued an email blast calling for a pledge to wear masks until the end of the year!  Hearkening to a few weeks ago when Joe Biden said people should wear masks until 2022, the email says:

President Biden is right: wearing a mask is the best way to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect our fellow Americans.  But we need Democrats from EVERY STATE (including your state) to wear a mask for the rest of the year!  It's the only way to protect Americans.

The email is part of an ad from leftist New Republic.

What is this about?  Note the lack of science.  The basis for continuing to wear a mask is because Joe Biden says so.  And it calls on Democrats to wear masks.  If masks stop the spread of COVID, why not ask everyone to wear a mask?  Is it limited to Democrats so they can identify one another?  Is this a form of virtue-signaling?  Is it a means for Democrats to harass non-mask-wearers as Enemies of the People?  Does it provide continued cover for the Democrats' masked friends in Antifa?  Or is this just a call to follow the party line set by the White House?

As each day seems to get weirder and weirder, things like this — unthinkable not long ago — just become part of the increasing noise of life.

Death tolls, correct preventative behavior, questions surrounding vaccines, and even the nature of COVID itself are issues for which we should be accessing and considering scientific data.

Yet, as time goes by, it seems that only one kind of science, such as it is, is being disseminated.  And that's called political science.

A retired marketing professor, Mike Landry is a freelance writer in Northwest Arkansas.  He can be reached at landry_74464us@yahoo.com.

Photo credit: YouTube screen grab.