Check out "Dumbing Us Down" by John Taylor Gatto sometime. Literacy rates and the general education level of the US were almost certainly higher prior to widespread public education. The dichotomy of results between private/charter/ homeschool vs. most municipality's public schools is also very damning.
Enough about this asshole.
Masks: Mask Mandates and Infection Rates. Is There a Correlation?
Just wear the damn mask. Because I said so.
I don't think with 20 million potential deaths I'd advocate mandating a shutdown. This is what people don't understand: If people are dropping dead in the streets from, say, an ebola-like virus, they aren't going to go out. All of the "mandatory" closings wouldn't be necessary because no one would be going to the gym. No one would be eating at restaurants. Those places would very likely voluntarily close on their own accord because they'd be too scared to open.
The local governments and health departments have unequivocally decided that they are going to be scared for you, and that they will let you know when it's safe to eat at a restaurant. They have decided when it is safe for you to do squats without a mask. They have decided when you are essential or non-essential. They have decided everything about what you can or cannot do. They have completely ignored you and what you feel is safe. Local governments have shuttered businesses like bars. They have forced restaurants into austere conditions serving 25-50% of their customers at a maximum. They have done all of this because of a virus that kills... Shit... something like .03% of the population.
Why aren't people like you foaming at the mouth and pissed off? I do not understand and cannot understand this.
There’s a lot that’s happening in the U.S. and the world that you guys just don’t talk about. You bring up the same kinds of events over and over and then interpret them in the same way again and again. To find something comparable you’d have to go to some weird religious community where everybody is sitting around intoning something.
This is ludicrous. As if it's possible to butter you guys up. Y'all are, as you seem to recognize sometimes, some of the most hostile and disagreeable people around. Echo chambers make people stupid.