Like no doubt many of you, I’ve been wearing a mask when I go out to the grocery store or anywhere I might encounter other people. I hadn’t really thought about this as any kind of big deal: My doctor told me it would be a sensible thing to do to protect both myself and others from the coronavirus, and I aspire to not die or kill anyone else. I don’t know, it’s all pretty straightforward stuff from my perspective. This isn’t one of those things I find to be intellectually taxing.
Somehow, the wearing of the mask has become a front in a larger culture war that really only makes sense to people who live extremely fortunate lives with nothing much at stake. I don’t like to set the parameters on what an “inessential employee” is, but if you put a gun to my head, I’d suggest that a thought leader swanning in from their hermetically sealed existence to foment a political street fight over the ideological signaling of mask-wearing more than fits the bill.
How did it come to pass that we ended up in a “culture war” over masks? Vox’s Zack Beauchamp locates its origin in a recent series of angry tweets sent by First Things editor R.R. Reno, who got so very bent out of shape about all the mask-wearing that he questioned the steel of the mask-wearers, tweeting, “By the way, the WWII vets did not wear masks. They’re men, not cowards. Masks=enforced cowardice.” Chemical weapons saw little battlefield deployment during the Second World War, so we don’t have a lot of data on whether our brave fighting men, impulsively shedding themselves of their protective gear, successfully faced down clouds of mustard gas with nothing more than their jutting chins and a heart full of moxie. But you can’t defeat a virus with bravery, I’m afraid.
As Beauchamp goes on to point out, Reno’s rantings reveal that the wearing of the mask twigs the amygdala of the conservative mind in a couple of significant ways: It runs against its notions of masculinity, and it reads as a form of “political correctness.” This week, Matthew Sitman built on this idea, offering The New Republic’s readers some insight into why this crisis is making conservative intellectuals so insane in the membrane.
Let’s face facts: Most Americans have no idea who Reno is and have no real contact with First Things or its content. The publication has only recently risen to semi-obscurity on the strength of an intra-ideological debate its leading lights have sparked in the right-wing idea sphere, over whether the conservative project should continue toiling within the constraints of liberal democracy or, as a fun alternative, become a Catholic imperium instead. I have a feeling that if the pandemic had never happened, Reno would have just found some other thing to get worked up over in the same way, and his complaints would have simply been fitted onto whatever hyped-up conflict our zeitgeist had chosen to provide. When all you have is a hammer, you see nails everywhere you look. |
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| Nevertheless, there is a widespread perception that the coronavirus has spawned some sort of ideological conflict. Our newshole has been filled with reports of people protesting the lockdowns and other tactics we’re using to confront the pandemic—tactics that have sprung from medical science, not partisan politics. It’s getting to the point where one couldn’t be blamed for thinking that this really is some sort of live issue, that a culture war over masks really is ongoing, or that the country is sharply divided over the steps that have been taken to keep everyone safe.
Some good news, then: HuffPost’s Ariel Edwards-Levy reports that most people are actually conscientious objectors to this alleged culture war into which they’ve been beckoned. According to the latest HuffPost/YouGov poll, “Americans say, 62 percent to 29 percent, that deciding to wear a face mask is more a matter of public health than a matter of personal choice.” Moreover, while there “are still significant partisan and demographic divides,” these are “not so pronounced as to leave the two parties diametrically opposed.”
“Rather, the gap is a matter of degrees,” writes Edwards-Levy, “with a broad majority of Democrats and a more modest majority of Republicans offering support for masks and rejecting the idea that wearing them is a pointless practice or a sign of weakness.”
Additionally, a new AP poll finds that “83 percent of Americans are concerned [that] lifting restrictions in their area will lead to additional Covid-19 infections.” It should be said: Congratulations to 83 percent of Americans, because they have this exactly right.
There are some important lessons to be learned from this whole coronavirus culture-war myth. For all the criticism the media gets, the most damaging biases it habitually demonstrates aren’t ideological; rather it’s the predilection for conflict that often skews the reality it presents. In keeping with this finding, let’s also not lose sight of the fact that the faction that seems to be rejecting common sense is on the fringes—its wackadoo ideas of masks and quarantines as terrible affronts to the idea of liberty haven’t gained widespread purchase in the general population.
Most importantly, if there’s a World War II analogy to be applied to the public during this pandemic, it’s not some toff’s imaginings of bare-assed gallantry in the face of biological death. Instead, think of the quiet resolve of those who sacrificed at home, rationing food and gasoline and other sundries, keeping those home fires lit, and bearing up under incredible strain with an unmatched civic spirit. This is the right tradition in which to place the mask-wearers and the social distancers: the restoration of an ancient American spirit that calls upon us to Do Our Bit. There’s a lot to be sad about these days, and plenty of reasons for anger as well, but it should gladden us somewhat to know that we still retain the capacity to sacrifice for one another. To everyone who’s been at this for 10 weeks or longer, what is there to say? Except, thank you.
—Jason Linkins, Deputy Editor |
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| And what else is there to do but honor the dead? This weekend, the Trump White House has ordered our flags be flown at half-staff. As Jessica Goldstein notes, such acknowledgment has been perplexingly overdue. As far as that fringe group protesting the lockdown goes, Libby Watson examines their strange civic religion, which conflates consumerism with constitutional rights. In the interest of getting in some springtime renewal before the Memorial Day weekend passes us by, we have some fresh ideas: Osita Nwanevu discusses the means by which we carve out more workplace democracy and economic power for those workers who are so essential to our lives; Kate Aronoff, meanwhile, maps out a strategy by which progressives renew their bonds with the residents of coal country. And did you ever get the feeling that President Trump has a loose grip on the facts? Matt Ford explores the long-standing battle between Good and Bad Numbers that has been a mainstay of his career. |
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