[cjd]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

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.

You're talking about CHANGE here, not destruction.

Lack of facial expression can certainly be a challenge - it certainly is for the deaf. But their answer wasn't "take the mask off" it was "here, let's make masks which help us see what's going on". As for kids and social issues; the pandemic is NOT the cause - we have MASSIVE social problems around raising children and communication and all sorts of things. They're not because the expressions formed by the mouth and nose are not visible.

Not being able to see loved ones? Really. I've seen MORE of my family - we just never realized we could get together regularly remotely and enjoy it. Is it the same? nope. Why did it take this event for us to try? That's a really good question. Though it's only been the last couple years that it's been viable (the tech has improved). And it's not for everyone.

Crippling economies? I have yet to see substantial data on this either way. However, what I have seen points to our inability to create an environment where our citizens are successful finally having a light shone on it. Don't tell the richest people (who, by the way, got FAR richer FAR faster due to the pandemic) that the *economy* is crippled. The not-so-rich are absolutely in a MUCH WORSE place, but this was just a small nudge. They were already in a rather bad place.
Also, it has exposed supply-chain problems and poor decisions implemented to squeeze every bit of wealth out of the system as possible. The pandemic was not the cause. It exposed the problems. "Made in America" has sure ground to a halt without regular shipments of goods from overseas. That should tell you something.

In fact, I think all your assertions here were already problems and the pandemic just amplified them a bit, more or less.

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

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.

First - nope. But I've always been relatively blind to expression/body language. I've had to learn it, and still struggle. I'm definitely not alone in this, but just like extroverts insist introverts really DO want to go to that party, "normies" insist this is natural and obvious. It's not. It's easier for some than others to learn, sure. And learning to read the expressions hidden by a mask certainly means you need to use a different set of cues.
Third - there are OTHER reasons it can be hard to understand, exacerbated by masks indeed. The frequencies we use to distinguish the sound being made and translate that into words are indeed hindered by face coverings. An awful lot of people have VERY poorly trained ears and therefore struggle. This is the other reason I think I haven't struggled here; I DO have trained ears. There are some studies on this I believe (musicians vs non-musicians, etc.)

Second - plenty of places in the world where face coverings are normal - especially in the desert. This means that a learned set of skills are now less useful. It's absolutely a challenge. It is not socially destructive.
A car related example: there's has been this odd contention that sim racing doesn't translate because it doesn't FEEL the same. Drivers who learned their skills on a live track with physics and gravity tugging at them STRUGGLE to translate their skills to sims (relatively speaking). Know what? That largely does NOT hold true the other way. Why? All those physical indicators of what's going on? There are also VISUAL indicators, and often before the physical one! You get there. You adapt. That is, in fact, one of the things that has made humans what we are.

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

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.

Our decisions, absolutely. WHICH decisions are destructive though? Easy. When they're selfish behaviors at odds with what is best for the group ("I don't want to wear a mask in the store.") they're anti-social behaviors; the worst are socially destructive. Of course, there could be a selfish behavior which DOES help the group ("I want to wear a mask to reduce the chance of getting seriously ill").
So the easiest options are those things which are both selfishly beneficial AND socially beneficial. Then again, masks fall into that category and are a contentious issue.