Christina Berndt, SZ Journalist: "If Germany lifts mask mandates and I keep masking, people will think I'm a strange eccentric, therefore Germany should not lift mask mandates."

Brief notes on masking psychology.

It has only taken two years, for a coalition of smug, city-dwelling, middle-aged, upper-middle-class hysterics like Christina Berndt to form a political bloc that represents one of the greatest threats to European civilisation since the development of nuclear munitions.

The last time we checked in with Christina Berndt, she was complaining that the debate over vaccine mandates had been drowned out by “the shrill discussion over reopening mandates.”

To nobody’s surprise, this paragon of sanity, health and vision now regrets the looming expiration of mask mandates in Germany:

… [T]he abolition of mask mandates is being euphorically celebrated across large parts of the population. Unfortunately, there is nothing to celebrate here. Nothing could be simpler and smarter, than keeping this little bit of material in front of our mouths and noses for a while longer, to protect the old and the sick and also to prevent a wave of Long Covid cases among the young and the healthy – at least as long as the incidences are so high.

But instead of seeing the masks as the pragmatic instrument they are, their rejection is justified with another gimmick ... They now say that, thanks to the masks, people who are at-risk can protect themselves … Let those who need them wear them and leave everyone else alone.

How absurd … ! It’s true that FFP2 masks, unlike surgical masks, are primarily for self-protection. But of course this protection is improved if everyone cooperates. Where everybody wears masks, there are sure fewer virions in the air, than where only a few voluntarily cover their noses and mouths. It should thus go without saying that people who are particularly at risk should ask others to help protect them. In fact, it is right that they expect the state to ensure their protection by maintaining the mask requirement.

Lifting the mandates, though, will surely lead to fewer and fewer people filtering their breath. Wearing a mask will then become a symbol of fear or weakness. Mask-wearing, though, is more than a sign that you don’t want to catch the virus. It’s an expression of solidarity. It would be nice if many people showed such solidarity. Freedom is good. But freedom without responsibility is not freedom at all, merely egoism.

What useful insight this whole screed provides us into the psychology of the maskers: