When you look at politics and masks today, it’s hard to believe how a simple video of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went viral back in 2021.

Nothing unusual about that, right?
Except… she’d been chatting maskless with a crowd moments before — and only masked up when the cameras came out.

Naturally, Breitbart couldn’t resist.
They tweeted the clip with a huge “Of course!” — and the internet exploded.

When you think about politics and masks, you realize: this tiny piece of fabric became way more than a health tool.
It became the political symbol in America.

Team Mask vs. Team Freedom

On the left?
Mask = responsible, community-loving citizen.
On the right?
Mask = virtue-signaling, latte-sipping, coastal elite.

I remember hearing crazy stories:

• In Kentucky, you couldn’t enter some stores if you wore a mask (!).
• In New York City, you couldn’t enter unless you wore one (!!).

One friend in Brooklyn even told me she panicked when she accidentally stepped outside barefaced.
Not because she feared Covid… but because walking around maskless was basically social suicide. (Summer heat? Irrelevant.)

But these days… it’s almost like it never happened.

Politics and Masks: What Happened After the Pandemic?

Now, in London?
I hardly see anyone with a mask.
In the U.S., maybe a server here and there — especially if they don’t get paid sick leave — but regular folks? Nada.

It’s ironic, right?
After all that drama about politics and masks, even liberals seem to avoid them now — worried, maybe, that it’ll look like “virtue-signaling” (which, let’s be honest, isn’t very trendy anymore).

Remember all those articles predicting that mask-wearing would stick around for flu seasons?
Yeah… that didn’t happen either.

The Worst Virus I’ve Ever Had (and No, It Wasn’t Covid)

Actually, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because I just got knocked out by the worst virus I’ve ever had.
(Yes, worse than all four of my Covid infections. lol)

Symptoms included:

• 72 hours of high fever
• A full week barely able to get out of bed
• Endless coughing
• Weird post-viral rash

Sounds like a party, right?

And I’m not alone.
Friends, family, coworkers — everyone seems to be catching some kind of super-flu.
Hospitals in the UK even declared “critical incidents” earlier this year.

Officials said it might be one of the worst flu seasons ever.

Could Masks Have Helped?

Would things have been different if more people wore masks while sick?
Honestly… maybe?

There’s still debate about how effective masks really are (source), but from what I’ve read, it kinda feels like they could’ve helped.
(At least a little.)

But here’s the thing —
Whether you agree with that or not probably depends more on your politics than on actual science.

When Reality Becomes a Team Sport

If you’re the type who believes DEI is destroying society, that Biden is barely alive, and that somehow the war in Ukraine is secretly someone else’s fault…
then yeah, you’re probably not Team Mask.

And that’s the real issue:
When everything — even health decisions — becomes a tribal marker, we lose sight of reality.

We stop seeing things for what they are.
We start judging ideas based on who said them, not whether they make sense.

Even hard numbers — like inflation rates — now get interpreted differently depending on which political tribe you belong to.

It’s like… reality itself is splitting.

Maybe We Need to Chill

So what can we do?

Maybe…
we could stop treating every belief like a badge.
Maybe…
we could stop making every single choice a signal of loyalty.

Because honestly —
we can’t have a stable, prosperous society and keep playing endless team sports with everything.

We have to pick one.

Otherwise, we’re just going to keep getting dumber.

(And, uh… I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not.)