In response to my question regarding seeing any other social destructiveness due to our response to the vaccine, you wrote..
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Originally Posted by cjd
Yes. Pretending it's not an issue. Creating rules preventing places from enforcing safe-guards (anti-mask-mandate stuff). Insisting on "getting back to normal" when it's not time. I'm appalled at the behavior of some governors; I was equally appalled at the CDC "no mask if you're vaxxed" guideline earlier this year. Social organization and collaboration is what has allowed 'humans' to do some pretty amazing things; in this case, these actions are ignoring the health of that society as a whole. Like favoring an injury and pretending it's not there can lead to other injuries.
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What about preventing young children from seeing facial expressions, which at that age (and some would say at any age) plays a larger part in communication than the actual words spoken, not to mention healthy childhood development? Crippling economies? Preventing families from seeing their loved ones, especially if they are suffering and at times when that human contact would do the most good? Relying on technology and tiny constant hits of dopamine for peer-to-peer interaction and comfort rather than face-to-face, human interaction with hugs, hearty handclasps, and other expressions of caring much more powerful than words endemic to our species? Further isolating those already struggling with emotional isolation? All of this stuff is very, VERY real, very harmful, and also very socially destructive.
I'm assuming by now pretty much everyone, at some point, has noticed and/or wondered why they don't seem to hear quite as well when they wear a mask and other folks are more difficult to understand. It's not an illusion, but it's not caused by your hearing being affected. It's the result of not being able to see each other's lips move and see each other's expressions. Context is a HUGE part of what we say, and that context is framed by facial expression. On top of that, even those with the most acute hearing still innately use all senses at their disposal when communicating, and reading each others lips is a part of that. Yes, it's not strictly necessary (radio, spoken books, etc), but the visual does aid in comprehension and the desire to pay attention closely.
We are experiencing a great deal of social destruction; on this we agree. Some is caused by the virus itself; we agree on that, too. I hope you can agree that a significant amount is caused by our decisions in how we react to the virus. We may not agree on whether or not that price is worth it, or which causes more destruction.