Masking is not an effective solution. Anyone that propagates this shit is just doing it for clicks at this point.

Have you read the highly respected Cochrane Review? https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses

Read the review. It’s the most comprehensive post pandemic study from a highly respected journal. They clearly state the following:

There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect. The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection. Hand hygiene is likely to modestly reduce the burden of respiratory illness, and although this effect was also present when ILI and laboratory-confirmed influenza were analysed separately, it was not found to be a significant difference for the latter two outcomes. Harms associated with physical interventions were under-investigated.

If we can’t settle the issue after a 2 year pandemic, I highly doubt it will ever be settled by science.

Masking is political theater and is ultimately a matter of expressing your tribe at this point. Alternatively, we could think of people who wear masks today as leaning more heavily towards social humanism and hive mentality (society over the individual), where non masks proponents lean towards liberal humanism (in the sense of freedom of the individual, that is, personal liberty).

Given that the science is inconclusive about masks, and even suggests that they are not effective, it’s about time that news outlets drop the topic. If you want to wear a mask, then do it. But don’t force anyone else to or suggest that governments should regulate it.

COVID is over. New shit will come. Masks won’t be the solution.

Edit: downvotes without any proper rebuttal. Classic tribalism at all cost despite the truth.

Place is fun. Glad to see that it’s going to happen here too.

It seems there is a fair number of people wanting to “not copy Reddit.” But it seems they forget that the whole reason they are on Lemmy/Kbin is to find an alternative to Reddit, that basically works like Reddit. The sentiment of “don’t do what Reddit does” should apply only to the shifty stuff Reddit does, like cutting off API access to good developers.

I get this perspective, but the reality is that Reddit has a lot of users that don’t care. Similarly, millions of people signed up for Meta’s Threads forking over a shitload of privacy. The majority of people aren’t educated enough to know or care about the issues at hand. So rather than us trying to fight a behemoth, we have to work alongside it to siphon off its community one member at a time.

I remember taking part in /place before Reddit sold out. It was an amazingly fun time. But now the veneer has peeled off. I no longer see Reddit as a benevolent community focused and motivated platform. Rather, it is another Meta. Another shitty company that turned on its community and the people who make the place so interesting. It’s a pretty fucked up tactic in my book.

Reddit won’t be dying anytime soon, so I agree with the OPs approach. And yes, most of us found Lemmy/Kbin because we thought it was fucked up what Reddit did, but I’m guessing most of us are a little more on the tech side of things and willing to branch out beyond Meta and now Reddit.

Also, Place returning right now is too soon. It feels forced. It’s clearly motivated by the IPO and that bothers me. It’s not organic. It’s carefully calculated by a bunch of greedy assholes.