Mask wearing is more about feeling like you're saving lives, than it is about actually saving lives.

It's a great metaphor for modern culture. Feelings over facts. Virtue signaling over virtue.

I'm not with it, but I understand it from a psychological perspective.

It's an easy way to show people 'look, I'm one of the good ones... I care. I'm doing my part.'

Whether or not it makes a tangible difference barely matters... It's a psychological cushion and symbol of compliance.

People are absolutely terrified of social judgment.

Some people will admit this openly. Which I somewhat respect (honesty).

But we live in an age of mass delusion, denial, cognitive dissonance, and sunk cost fallacy.

Few want to accept that these gestures are more symbolic, than practically and demonstrably effective.