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> people turned wearing masks into a ridiculous political issue. In my country, “wear masks because we say so, else you are an idiot” came just after “people w
by olgeni 3y ago
> people turned wearing masks into a ridiculous political issue.
In my country, “wear masks because we say so, else you are an idiot” came just after “people who buy masks are selfish baboons because masks are not useful at all.”
When you treat citizens like idiots, or threaten them, it usually becomes a “political” issue at some point.
It would be better to have a more coherent communication strategy ready for the next time. It would also be great to have literate leaders in charge, something we sorely lacked over here.
- gmerc 3y agoMaybe people are just idiots or use politicians being idiots as an excuse. Either way, it was pretty obvious wearing masks basically had no short term downsides and yet.
- JohnFen 3y ago> It would be better to have a more coherent communication strategy ready for the next time. I don't think the problem was an incoherent communications strategy as much as having imperfect information. Plus, the way that news organizations and other popular media handled things made everything much worse. At the start, everyone was figuring out what the threat vectors actually were. The changing advice was a result of investigation leading to better understanding. What happened was better than the alternative: in a fast-moving crisis like this, waiting until you have a very high degree of confidence can be worse than doing the best you can with what you know, even if it turns out not to be great as understanding develops.