No, Face Masks Aren’t Dehumanizing

At the University where I teach, enrollment is dropping month by month, and it's not because kids are afraid of covid. They're reporting feeling disengaged from professors and disconnected from each other. It's the masks.

Dehumanizing is what people feel about them for whatever reasons. Trying to analyse it deeper by science misses the whole point about feelings.

People who are against the face condom, I'm sure, use condoms with people they don't trust. I'm sure they wear seat belts as well. The problem is that this country invented the term "face covering", instead of mandating masks that work - KN95, N95, KF94, KF99, FFP2, FFP3, etc.

Do face masks work? Is security theater forced upon our little ones dehumanizing?

It's really a sign of our times that we need to have this kind of discussion (i.e. are life-saving things emotionally hurtful).

But it seems important to remember that masks were practically non-existent before covid. So I assume most people base their assessment (whether they are dehumanizing) on a past perception of prevalence. In other words, masks used to be dehumanizing when no-one wore them.