Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are pushing forward with their plan to repeal a pandemic-era law that allowed the wearing of masks in public for health reasons, a move spurred in part by demonstrations against the war in Gaza that have included masked protesters camped out on college campuses
I’m fairly certain that the source for this is bank robbers of yore. But this goes under “we do this, because we’ve always done it that way”, and it’s the absolute worst reason to keep doing something. I, for one, enjoyed and supported my right to wear masks for the sole reason that it hid a good part of my face. Didn’t do much for facial recog, as we saw, but humans have a hard time identifying and remembering faces without seeing a mouth. I knew the masks weren’t real respirators and weren’t nearly as effective as they could have been (the reason I wore an actual respirator pre COVID and during), but I very much enjoyed the added privacy for everyone nonetheless.
Actually, Anti Klan legislation.
In NC? I know some places have had this law (maybe it was town-specific) since western times.
The repeal would return public masking rules to their pre-pandemic form — created in 1953 to address a different issue: limiting Ku Klux Klan activity in North Carolina, according to a 2012 book by Washington University in St. Louis sociology professor David Cunningham.
Neat! Thanks for the info. I should have learned more about that state while working at the previous employer, but oh well. It didn’t really seem pertinent then. I guess it’s never too late.