Any mandate to wear masks has to recognize that throwing people off transportation for not wearing masks is wrong, counterproductive, and also absolutely unacceptable. It’s not people’s fault there is both a shortage and confusing messaging. Hand out masks. No disaster fascism. https://twitter.com/phillytru/status/1248689954294726658

If you ever wondered how incompetence and authoritarianism could get us to pandemic fascism real fast, look at what's happening around masks. First they were useless, and suddenly cops are dragging people off trains for not wearing one―meanwhile hospital still don't have enough.

Pandemic fascism, accompanied by pandemic theater, is the worst of all possible worlds. We'll get counterproductive policies that appeal to anxieties as justification rather than being evidence-based or sustainable. Look at what's happened to parks/trails. https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1247546543051345926

We should wear masks especially in crowded indoor spaces like trains and stores. That should happen with education and availability of masks! We should be able to go outdoors with policies to manage congestion and enable distancing—not imprison people indoors which is unhealthy.

I like this thread. Taking the pandemic seriously shouldn't mean taking evidence, sustainability or rights less seriously. https://twitter.com/Quinnae_Moon/status/1248378220505731073

"I take the pandemic seriously so the policies that sound most severe must be the best, and btw let me share that medium piece with the scariest sounding faux science that's not based on evidence or epidemiology" cannot be the way forward. We really need to ground ourselves.

Yes, but that *is* how you get fascism—by mobilizing human nature and anxieties into a draconian state that is explicitly and implicitly supported not just by hate, but also anxiety and fear. Fascism is not alien to human nature. It's one version of it. https://twitter.com/MKKare/status/1248989493962530817

Any idea that the "liberal" politics as they're currently constructed in Western nations are any kind of bulwark against pandemic fascism is not true. Look at your Facebook feeds, people. It's full of anxiety-fueled scolding that's waiting for the "correct" authoritarianism.

US right/admin seems to want to go with "let's let mass deaths cleanse the economy" which is one scary form, but it's plausible that the opposite will then be construed a "let's pick whatever sounds most severe and punish all violations"—which also *won't* work and is also scary.

In Feb and March, locally, I watched with despair as some on the liberal side traveled/gathered and people who tried to caution were scolded with "what about the flu" and "don't be racist." Now, "can I go for a walk?" is met with a version of "you murderer what's wrong with you!"

I'm not saying this is everyone, but the strains are there for a realignment that ends with broad-based pandemic fascism. I don't see Western nations as immune to this, and not being a fan of this admin is by itself not immunity to being a potential part of that realignment.