A lot of details and times in this story have been obscured so I don’t get doxxed.
It’s sorta funny being a tall, middle aged white guy. I so rarely get shit for my idiosyncrasies. I can’t remember the last time people gave me grief about masking, reading constantly, not drinking, or being vegan. People in my life seem to learn very quickly that if they start bullshit with me, I’m going to drop 10 peer reviewed studies on why they’re wrong. I’m legit sorry for people who aren’t born into that privilege. My partner gets a lot more crap from acquaintances than I do.
My managers at work seem to understand that I mask because 1) my partner’s health isn’t great and I have a legit reason to keep her safe, 2) I will drop 100 peer reviewed studies on you if you suggest otherwise, 3) it negatively affects nothing about how I do my job, and 4) fuck you I will take it to the union and labour tribunals if I have to, and you’ll look like an absolute fuckface.
So guess how I felt when I got an email saying there was a big plan to get the one remaining masking student in the school to stop masking. I’ve never once asked this teen girl why she still masks, I just felt that it’s none of my business. But now I see a bunch of middle aged white guy managers deciding to make health choices for this young non-white girl, and it makes my blood boil. Not even for the covid thing, but every page of theory I’ve read says how fucked up this situation is.
So I talked to the staff directly, said that long covid is the largest chronic disease affecting children. Said that there’s an abundance of research on masking and education. Said there’s no medical or educational body that suggests doing what you’re doing, and that you’ve brought zero evidence for the claims you’re making. Said that this girl’s age is far old enough that the WHO and other research have shown that masking has no effect on her learning. Said that she’s a human being that deserves to make her own choices, and that children aren’t resilient to pressure from adults.
That was just the start of the issue. The anti-masking staff took it really personally. I was objectively not mean. I never raise my voice or use insults. But I was dragged into several meetings over my attitude. As far as I can tell, I was “too verbal” over the issue. People felt that I was calling them cruel or stupid, which other teaching staff in the room with us can attest that I wasn’t. It’s all incredibly over the top. For the first time since I was a student, I have quite a few people who won’t say hello to me in the corridor. Some of these people I’ve known for over a decade, and we’ve been very cordial and productive together.
If I may bring up my experience being a vegan: people don’t like being wrong on a subject. If someone is made to feel like an evil person, even if I explicitly never said anything close to that, their rage metre goes to 100%. I’m sure plenty of non-vegan leftists have similar reactions with other modes of oppression. I’m guessing people get pretty illogical when called a racist or misogynist?
Anyhow, it just sucks here. Meetings are being held with parents. Calls are being made to health authorities and educational offices. It’s tense in a way that I’m absolutely not used to.
Veganism, masking, asking people to stop tailgating or texting while driving . . .
The latest season of The Rehearsal examines some of this (through the lens of pilot / co-pilot interactions). Ultimately the best actionable advice
had was to introduce role-play scenarios, on the theory that if people are playing a “character” they’re less inhibited.
We could probably all do with reading some studies on how to overcome defensiveness when someone’s willingly endangering everyone around them. But ultimately I guess it’s the hyper-individualist, don’t-tell-me-what-to-do capitalist Protestant mindset that needs to be eradicated if we’re going to make real progress on this.
The Mr Blunt and Mr Allears was more or less something i used to do before going to work. My job situation generally means I have to be both, kitchens are fast and communication is key to not working way harder than you need to, so there’s no time to mince words and you cant just blow past a problem and hope it goes away either, if a pasta pot has boiled down and needs more water and for that water to reheat, I gotta Allears that and then Blunt the re-arragning of orders to keep things in sync. Also being frank and assertive tends to give people the impression you’re looking out for number one, be blunt on other people’s behalf when you can cause its way easier to stick up for others than yourself, no one has to confront the boss when he’s out of line with someone cause another person will do it for them.