Karens and Kens, assemble!

This past weekend was Independence Day in the US, which means Americans celebrated with fireworks, outdoor barbeques, and a truly patriotic warcry against the tyranny of wearing a face mask to lessen the risk of infecting their fellow citizens with COVID-19.

After all, it’s not like more than 132 000 Americans haven’t already died from the disease. For context, that’s more than 40 times the death toll from the 9/11 attacks, when 2 977 Americans died.

The videos of American citizens battling retail workers regarding wearing a face mask continue to spread on social media (some of our ‘favourite’ meltdowns can be found here), and in some cases, the abuse is so bad that businesses are actually shutting their doors.

Reporting below via Business Insider:

Numerous restaurants across the US have decided to close dining rooms after reopening or shut down entirely due to anti-mask customers’ treatment of workers.

Hugo’s Taco closed both of its locations in Los Angeles in late June due to combative customers who refused to wear masks.

“Staff have been harassed, called names, and had objects and liquids thrown at them,” Hugo’s Tacos said in a statement posted on social media. “A mask isn’t symbolic of anything other than our desire to keep our staff healthy.”

Imagine having to deal with this mindset, in a country where confirmed cases are reaching record levels each day, and some knob chooses not to wear a face mask, thereby putting your health at greater risk.

Los Angeles, much like South Africa, requires people to wear a face mask in public, so it really is remarkable that more employees don’t dish out snotklaps to these imbeciles.

In South African restaurants, regulations around what measures the staff and customers make take have also been officially mandated.

Back to the US, and Hugo’s Taco isn’t alone:

GOODONYA Organic Eatery in Encinitas, California, announced this week that it will once again stop offering dine-in service, due to customers lashing out at workers who asked them to wear masks. In Houston, Texas, Eater reports Chow Wok did the same after growing tired of “unruly customers” who stormed out when asked to wear a mask.

Halcomb’s Taco Casa in Pocahontas, Arkansas, recently announced similar plans to close its dining room, as did Mexican Fiesta in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.

Yeah, it’s genuinely a widespread problem spanning multiple cities and states.

This is what happens when a president (and those who enable him) spends years discrediting science, and the media that reports on scientific facts.

One more time – no, wearing a mask isn’t going to make you ill from breathing in carbon dioxide. See that garbage debunked here, here, and here.

Fancy another video of a Karen in action? This is actually next-level stuff, because this woman is refusing to wear a face mask AT A HOSPITAL:

Went into the Emergency Dept. at St Joseph’s Hospital in #Toronto for a suspected broken finger. I was asked to wear a mask, which I refused to do. As a result, hospital staff asked me to leave and immediately called 3 security guards to escort me out. #filmyourhospital pic.twitter.com/7KlDa11udk

— Letitia Montana (@LetitiaMontana) July 5, 2020

You’re at a hospital, where healthcare workers risk their lives to save others, and you can’t wear a face mask. Better still, you think posting the video is going to elicit sympathy? GTFOH, Letitia / Karen.

Should we go deeper into the Karen mire? Buckle up, guys – this is perhaps where we peak:

pic.twitter.com/wRESCPdaka

— The commentary guy (@sreed101) July 2, 2020

If you’re making the connection to I Am Legend, you’re not alone:

I Am Karen (2020) pic.twitter.com/nErrIETb6h

— Filup Molina ⚡️ (@filupmolina) July 4, 2020

This meltdown doesn’t seem to be about face masks alone, but we are clearly in Karen country.

Public showdowns regarding face mask use are now so common that the New York Times is declaring it “the new American pastime”.

On any given day, somewhere in the United States, someone is going to wake up, leave the house and get in a huge argument with a stranger about wearing masks…

Grocery store managers are training staff on how to handle screaming customers. Fistfights are breaking out at convenience stores…

Public fights over masks have occurred with extraordinary frequency, service workers say, and far exceed the large number of those already captured by smartphones in viral videos.

For every Karen or Ken video we see (or Bobby Greenhash and his pal Bones), there are countless other incidents that go unrecorded.

Let’s not be like the Yanks on this front, and show a little common decency towards one another by wearing face masks in public.

[sources:businsider&nytimes]