So, I just got back last night from a two-day road trip to a red state. The first day was spent in a large, sprawling city and the second day was spent in a rural, but somewhat touristy area.
In the city, I was on a mission to visit four used bookstores (in the same chain) that were scattered around the city. Surprisingly, there were two different sets of store policies regarding COVID, despite being the same chain. Two stores said they were following the CDC policies and recommended mask wearing and the other two stores were mandating mask wearing, saying you couldn't go in without wearing one . You could actually feel the fear in the air there, which was strange to me, as the area where I live has a "live and let live" attitude towards the mask -- mask-wearing is a personal choice and no one cares what you do or don't do. I've heard about people double-masking, but in this city I saw multiple people double-masked...outside even! I felt very ill-at-ease in this city -- like I was in the middle of a zombie movie. I was really glad to get out of there.
Went to the rural area, which was around two hours away from the city, and it was the complete and total opposite. No one (except the occasional dumb tourist) was wearing a mask -- not the staff at the hotel, not the cashiers or store clerks, not the people working in restaurants, and not even the vast majority of the people that were there to enjoy the area. It was business as usual, like the pandemic had never existed. The contrast could not have been more stark.
I don't know why there was such a contrast. My guess is that the city has more liberals and the rural areas have more based conservatives. Either that, or the country folk are just too busy working for a living to have any time to be brainwashed by the MSM.
Today I went to a large chain grocery store in a reddish/blue suburb of a big city in US.
Saw only one other man in the store without a mask, though i never was asked to wear one, everyone was on their own volition. I could see in the eyes of a few men that they knew what they were doing (masked) vs me (unmasked) was dumb. One guy i saw at first had the mask under his nose & I later saw him at the checkout with it under his chin.
I've found that a lot of people wearing masks really do want to take them off. They're just looking for an unmasked person to validate their desire. Be the brave one and show them how it's done! We can free the world one mask at a time.
At my local Walmart, I had a guy ask me and the wife, both of us maskless, if it was "okay" to go maskless here (not according to my Governess its not) - told him "I'm not making you wear it and no one said anything to us when we came in so that's your decision." He got a big smile on his face and stuck his mask in his pocket.
Nice!
Hopefully, next time he doesn't put it on automatically.
It is a new test for me - if I'm pestered about a mask I just set my stuff down where I stand & walk out. That business has lost my patronage for life at that point.
I recently had one door greeter at wally world ask if I'd like a mask, when I said "No" she said "You should have a mask on as recommended by the CDC" - I told her it was none of her business why I did not have one on - I told her to call the cops if she had a problem with it. Went about my business like I owned the place and nobody said shit to me the rest of the 20 minutes I was in the store. I think the vast majority of mask wearers are only wearing them to avoid confrontation.