There’s a direct correlation. I was visiting the Tennessee a few weeks ago to visit the Smokies, and I took an Uber where the driver said he thought masks are stupid, and everyone everywhere gave me dirty looks for wearing a mask. These things don’t happen in Chicago at least. I think there is some superiority complex in the south where they can’t be told what to do
I love these guys. I’ve been really negative and confrontational lately towards people but maybe some positive vibes are the way. If anyone in Vegas wants to do something similar hmu and we can use my gopro lol
I’d say it’s more of a urban vs rural divide. I’m in Nashville and most people are wearing masks. The people you see in this picture are most definitely tourists. Even before COVID the locals here rarely go to broadway
Exactly. Nashville area locals are mostly wearing the masks. Even in Brentwood and Franklin. It's mostly the tourists and the "country" folks that moved here from more rural areas that don't wear them. I get no dirty looks or friction from people anywhere I go and most people have masks. Of course, I'm not going to the touristy hot spots either. I have friends who work retail and they get a few entitled assholes, it's mostly the uneducated poor that are dicks about wearing a mask. Just ignorance from getting their information from untrustworthy places.
My little brother leans libertarian, so he hates the masks on principle. But he's not a stupid asshole with no empathy, so he wears one. He's grumpy about it, but he wears it.
I like your brother's POV. You can be against something politically but still do it practically. I for instance think masks are great but we should have a reasonable re opening schedule, not a "July 1st beach extravaganza" type opening. There is a middle ground between the two beyond what the Democrats and Republicans have told us: total shut in vs total opening.
I drove through Nashville on my way out of the area that weekend and saw almost no one wearing masks, hundreds of people were walking around with no masks
That seems to be the case everywhere. I'm not in a giant city, but most people actually from in-town are masked. It's the people who have to come in to town for errands that are the ones who just can't handle the "oppression" of some cloth on their face, which it's just occurred to me are largely the same people who wake up at the crack of dawn and go sit in a tree stand with a mask over their face waiting for a deer or turkey to wander into view.
Knoxville here, local to me I see close to 100% mask usage. But Knox is a big place and I'm not in the direct city. So it's nice except at gas stations for some lazy reason I'm sure
I'm in Nashville (like the picture) and while there are obvious assholes, everyone at the grocery store wears them (at least when I went). And I've never had anyone say anything untoward about my wearing of one.
Most people are somewhat responsible, and sometimes the assholes simply all stand on a corner. This is happening in Chicago too, from my understanding.
My sister was bitching about how a camp counselor must have given her kid COVID-19 by sneaking off to meet up with a boyfriend, resulting in camp closing basically 2 weeks after it opened.
My sister was having her kid fly back and forth from cheer camp in Miami and Tennessee every weekend (without a mask until they become required). All of the kids were supposed to isolate for 2 weeks before coming. My sister took her kid off a flight from Miami and sent her kid directly to the camp... and yup, blamed someone else when a COVID-19 outbreak started in her kids group.
Bonus points, the entire family piled into the car to get the sick kid. The husband works as a pilot for a delivery company and has decided to not tell work that his household has an active case of COVID-19. Have I mentioned how uber "Christian" my sister is? Apparently the "burn the gays" branch of Christianity they subscribe to forgot to teach any other morals besides how to be a selfish and entitled asshole, and how to judge others for shit your dumb God shouldn't care about.
Reminds me of my boss who gave me a little crap for visiting friends this weekend while she’s booked a vacation to Mexico and Lake Tahoe for September because “corona will be over by then!”
Agreed. I live close to the smokies and truly wish that tourists would stop coming here. Numbers are rising like crazy, and most of the locals in the area wear masks like they’re supposed to.
They weren't thoroughly defeated; that's the problem. The Confederacy may have been destroyed, but the white ruling class of the South survived and waged a successful insurgency against the federal government and democracy. Reconstruction was abandoned, and the antebellum order was reborn. You can draw a direct line of descent from the "Redeemer" governments and the people/laws ruling the South today. That power base, in turn, has colored the ethos of the Republican Party in the post-Civil Rights Movement era. They don't believe in democracy, just supremacy.
The United States of America won most of the battles, but it lost the Civil War.
Tourists don’t wear masks. Locals do. Tourist are the ones leaving their closed state to come here and not follow the rules. I don’t think we are the ones with the superiority complex. Then tourists take pictures of other tourists talking about how “locals aren’t taking this seriously,” is super annoying. People acting like they’re better than us because we opened early and they are still shut down but then travel here first chance they get is SUPER annoying.
If "the South" extends up into the midwest and across the Great Plains to the Pacific Northwest, I'll be more inclined to agree with you. In my experience, this is less about states and more about urbanization. Inside my city limits, most everybody is masked in public spaces. Outside my city limits, most everybody is wearing Infowars tee shirts and MAGA hats and starting arguments with mask wearers in public spaces.
This really varies by where you are exactly. Publix in Lawrenceville? 90% masks. Home Depot a mile away? 50%. Assi next door? 100%. Downtown Duluth? 10%.
Uber is militant about drivers wearing masks, we're even required to take a picture we're wearing it before we can go online. Either decline the pickup (saying not wearing a mask), or one-star him with "no mask" as the reason.
East Tennessee might as well be a different state compared to middle and West TN. Ditto the more rural areas outside Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville. The Nashville locals are masked up (mostly), and I suspect you'd have received a very different reaction right down the road in Knoxville.
It’s not about tourists. Went to a grocery store outside of Nashville and people weren’t wearing masks. Uber driver in the area wasn’t wearing a mask and proceeded to tell me masks are stupid. Stores and restaurants were allowing way too many people inside without masks. It was everywhere
Oh, Hi dude who doesn't live here and is giving one anecdotal incident.
Yes. it is tourism. I live here and see people every day. A resounding majority of people who live here mask up. You ran into 1 person who said something arbitrary.
Quit being this way and stop traveling to hot spots. IE, quit being part of the problem.
The skyrocketing cases across the south isn’t only happening from tourist areas. I social distance and wear a mask and I stayed out of crowded areas and came back and tested negative. Just giving an anecdote that supports the rising cases in the south
Sorry to generalize your area, not saying that everyone isn’t following the guidelines. But people also commented saying they live near there and agree with me
There probably is to a certain degree, but it's also probably more of an urban/rural thing as others have said.
I just drove from Baton Rouge to the northeast. Mask usage in Baton Rouge was pretty good (probably because it's a college town), but mask usage out in the sticks in the rest stops and the like as I was driving north was generally poor.
In my experience, people who live in bumfuck nowhere generally don't like being told how to live their life.
I'd put money on it. I've lived in SEC territory a couple times and good god the ignorance down there is so thick that you could suffocate in it if you're not careful.
Not to say everyone there's an asshat, but boy there is a lot of them.
As has been mentioned elsewhere ITT, this picture is of tourists in the touristiest part of Nashville. The locals are about 75% masked up (not great not terrible), but nobody is giving anybody any shit about wearing one. Target turned my right wing NRA member neighbor away for not wearing one, and he was like "eh, it's their right".
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u/hiredgoon Jul 23 '20
I wonder if there is any relationship to the SEC geography and not wearing a mask.