Zed A. Shaw, Painter

It's even worse if they find out I'm a programmer. They already think I'm a dork for wearing gloves--and in the US being a dork is the worst thing you can be--but throw in programmer and clearly I have no idea what I'm doing and am a real wuss for wearing gloves.

I started wearing masks early on in the pandemic and I had the same reaction. People yelled at me that the mask was useless, why am I wearing that, looking at me like I'm a weirdo. They went out of their way to shame me in much the same way as when I wore gloves.

I can't explain why, but Americans have some kind of weird aversion to protective gear. If you wear earplugs at a concert you're a dork. If you wear gloves while you paint, put on a N95 mask, have your guitar at a comfortable height, all bring shaming and claims you're a dork.

That's definitely rare, but if you look at the stats it seems like not enough people are doing it and that's prolonging the outcome. But, if you opened businesses up at least that'd stop one problem.