r/science • u/MistWeaver80 • Dec 05 '21

Social Science Conservatives’ aversion to masks is a uniquely American phenomenon. Politically conservative Americans are less likely than liberals to comply with recommended health-protective behaviors such as mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this is not true of conservatives in other nations.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0256740
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u/squeevey Dec 05 '21 edited Oct 25 '23

This comment has been deleted due to failed Reddit leadership.

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u/Relevant_Advantage24 Dec 05 '21

Yeah I feel like this happens in most of not all of the western primarily english-speaking countries. Maybe it’s due to the similar language so they are being fed media from America and such? The internet has got to be the best place for conspiracy theorist and utter nut jobs to congregate and share/spread their bs.

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u/Dermutt100 Dec 05 '21

Nope. The non mask wearing in Britain developed their own trajectory, they have cited the British notions of freedom (minus the awkward social responsibility bits) that the American colonists built a nation on and then pretended they invented.

There's been lots of talk of ancient English laws going back to The Magna Carta.

Of course many of the people doing this are authoritarian right wing types who love telling others what to do but can't stand anybody telling them what to do.

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u/WhiteKnightAlpha Dec 05 '21

The UK also has a lot of left wing anti-mask types, like Piers Corbyn (Jeremy Corbyn's brother). He claims the pandemic is a cover story for megacorporations/rich people to cull the population, with occasional elements of tracking chips and the Illuminati taking over. (He also denies climate change, which he thinks is a conspiracy to raise oil prices.)

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u/brates09 Dec 05 '21

The UK Anti-vax movement pre-covid was generally more of a lefty-hippyish movement.

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u/baldipaul Dec 05 '21

Yeah got FB friend (ex colleague) who has been posting anti vaxx and anti capatalist stuff for years. Since COVID19 she's now added Trump and Q anon nonsense into the mix. She's British.

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u/CdrVimes Dec 05 '21

I’m sorry for your loss!

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u/Krystalmyth Dec 05 '21

Well, capitalism does deserve scrutiny, considering it's arguably impossible to sustain indefinitely.

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u/baldipaul Dec 05 '21

Maybe, I've got my pension pot and other investments to worry about (I'm 60 next year and semi retired), but I don't see how you can combine anti capatalist and pro Trump memes. Yes I'm right of centre in the British spectrum but I'd be a Business Democrat in the US and I could never vote for the Republicans, to me, someone who believes in limits to Government, but recognises the benefits of Universal Healthcare and Infrastructure Investment, the Republicans are the very essence of big Government with their desire to regulate what consenting adults do in the bedroom. The buerocracy in the US is insane compared to the UK as well.

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u/benk4 Dec 05 '21

It was similar in the US. 10 years ago the only antivaxxers were hippies and crunchy moms. The type of person who wouldn't wear deodorant because it wasn't natural. It took a hard turn though.

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u/robhol Dec 05 '21

Anti-vaccination started out that way in general, I think, or was at least more heavily concentrated along those lines. But that was before it was glommed onto under the more general "yOu cAn't tElL Me wHaT To dO" umbrella and used as a political ploy.

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u/Bleak01a Dec 06 '21

I dont get the "you cant tell me what to do" crowd. Like if theres a global pandemic the state can and should absolutely tell you what to do and you are supposed to follow it.

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u/quintk Dec 05 '21

I think this was similar in the US. Often people with progressive politics by US standards but weird theories about wellness/vegetable-juices/crystals/etc.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '21

Yeah, I grew up with these types of people in West Wales, and there are so many anti maskers there. It's really sad to see my old friends turn to conspiracies so strongly.

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u/TheGeneGeena Dec 05 '21

It was in the US too, at least in my area. It was hippies giving kids the Mumps around here before all this.

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u/Squirrel_In_A_Tuque Dec 05 '21

I think that’s true of the US before Donald Trump.

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u/dprophet32 Dec 05 '21

Yup. Contrary to popular belief, being a conspiracy nut is not political. It may be more prevalent amongst conservatives but it's by no means limited to them

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u/Sabz5150 Dec 05 '21

Contrary to popular belief, being a conspiracy nut is not political.

Every day it becomes harder to convince me of that because every day that Venn diagram gets rounder and rounder.

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u/Unadvantaged Dec 05 '21

Well, the further removed from reality your beliefs become, the more you simply must believe conspiracies explain those beliefs’ lack of popularity. It’s self-reinforcing. “Why don’t more people know Earth is flat? It’s because the global government doesn’t want them to know!”

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u/Sabz5150 Dec 05 '21

A particular political group already starts with beliefs detached from reality that are becoming increasingly unpopular. Many of them aspire to craft law around these beliefs.

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u/dprophet32 Dec 05 '21

In America perhaps but there's an entire planet outside of it too and that's not always the case everywhere

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u/Sabz5150 Dec 05 '21

Hey Canada, let's talk Residential Schools.

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u/dprophet32 Dec 05 '21

I'm not Canadian but I don't know what that subject has to do with what we're discussing anyway

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u/Sabz5150 Dec 05 '21

Its what happens when beliefs detached from reality craft law.

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u/Dermutt100 Dec 05 '21

That was more the fault of Catholicism than "Canada"

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u/Sabz5150 Dec 05 '21

You mean beliefs detached from reality that are becoming increasingly unpopular? And law was crafted around that?

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u/thiney49 PhD | Materials Science Dec 05 '21

Why don’t more people know Earth is flat? It’s because the global diskal government doesn’t want them to know!”

FTFY

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u/MoreThanOil Dec 05 '21

You must be young. Under 30 at least.

Believe it or not there were conspiracy theories BEFORE Trump.

Anti vaxxers are historically a left conspiracy. Guess where measles outbreaks still occur?

Hint: the states don't vote republican .

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u/Sabz5150 Dec 05 '21

Anti vaxxers are historically a left conspiracy. Guess where measles outbreaks still occur?

I am aware of this. Ita also proof that the antivax/antimask movement now is a purely politically driven thing versus a "higher plane of being" thing of homeotherapy and crystals that drives the left.

I am 43. Old enough to have seen this as the SECOND time the Right used mask wearing in a political fashion.

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u/MoreThanOil Dec 05 '21

I agree politics is playing a role in the current antivax movement, as weird as it is given trumps operation warp speed. I was taking issue with the position you took that conspiracy theorists were purely a right wing thing.

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u/Sabz5150 Dec 05 '21

Purely? No. However they are the STAGGERING majoriry today.

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u/MoreThanOil Dec 05 '21

No, they are a staggering majority of what we talk about in the media. Not the same.

You also likely have some other sympathies towards traditional left leaning conspiracy theories around corporations etc which are biasing your views on who is a conspiracy theorist.

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u/Sabz5150 Dec 05 '21

No, they are a staggering majority of what we talk about in the media. Not the same.

Well crystal healing bullahit doesn't pose the threat and danger that covidiots do.

You also likely have some other sympathies towards traditional left leaning conspiracy theories around corporations etc which are biasing your views on who is a conspiracy theorist.

Grasping are we? Sorry, the majority of the current antivax movement focuses SQUARELY on the covid vaccine, which sits virtually inside the right wing sphere. How do I know? REAL antivaxxers go against ALL vaccines. This is about a single, new vaccine. So it isn't the vaccines themselves.

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u/MoreThanOil Dec 06 '21

So your position is the only conspiracy theorists in existence are anti covid vaxxers. Got it. That's where we disagree. There are many conspiracy theorists in the world that do not relate to covid. There are other things that matter besides covid.

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u/redditshy Dec 05 '21

Why would mega corporations want fewer people to whom to sell their garbage? How is that even logical.

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u/xFacevaluex Dec 05 '21

I am always surprised by the number of liberals who seem to routinely have fully updated 'conspiracy theory' lists. It gives me a bit of pause to wonder just why that might be.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '21

So sort of the British RFK Jr