Sure enough, you could open the prestige journals of our culture from any time over the past three years and find a reason to wear a mask that, at best, was a few steps removed from the primary goal of containing viruses.
"Masks have also become so much more than mere barrier between germs and lungs," one New York Times reporter stated in spring 2021. "They can keep that too-chatty neighbor at bay or help the introvert hide in plain sight."
One school teacher touted masks as a great way to "cover up breakouts, hide your bad breath and help out with mindless snacking when you wear a mask every day."
"Wearing a mask in public spaces," one Atlantic writer stated, "serves a broader social purpose: It says to those around us that, whatever our vaccine status, we value community safety." She added, "If I keep a mask on in all but the safest circumstances, it's to protect the emotional as well as physical health of those people."
"From my perspective, the main benefit is not so much the masking itself," one epidemiologist said, "but the message to society that this wave is not yet over."
"It saves me having to put on sunscreen and wear lipstick," one associate professor at Brown University said.
And for shoplifters and muggers, there's the added advantage of emboldening them to commit their crimes without fear of being identified by law enforcement, witnesses, or the neighbors they are victimizing.
"Being anonymized has always been associated with more deviant and criminal behavior," Bryanna Fox, a former FBI agent and criminology professor, noted back at the beginning of the pandemic. "People who wear masks feel more enabled and empowered to do things that they normally wouldn't have done if their face was seen in public."
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is the first big city mayor to admit the mask-crime connection and to try to do something about it.
"We are putting out a clear call to all of our shops: Do not allow people to enter the store without taking off their face mask. And then, once they're inside, they can continue to wear it if they so desire to do so," the mayor told a local news radio station.
The national crime wave of the past two-and-a-half years was caused in part by the antisocial effects of lockdowns and closures, but masks surely get some of the blame. As long as masks are broadly accepted, we will have elevated crime.
Hopefully, other mayors will follow Adams in trying to reestablish the norm that hiding your face is shameful. Sorry if this makes a chatty neighbor say hi.
In the plandemic, they were used in part for the same reason, to hide identity. Look at the antifa and BLM riots. All of them wore masks.