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In August 2021, a video of the Democratic Congress of Alexandria Okasio Cortez became a mask on his face on the steps of Capitol in the United States. You may be surprised to hear that what was then that a common scene would draw great attention, but the problem was that Okasio Cortez was happily photographed to chat with a large group of people without a mask until it is time to form a picture. “naturally!” The conservative media outlet Breitbart tweets, along with the video.

By that time, the face mask became a strong political symbol, and this was not the case in America. For the left, wearing a mask means that you are a reasonable and community liberal; For the right, I was a member of the signing of virtue, and a Communist member of the hypocritical coastal elite.

Some companies, In places like KentuckyIt will not allow you to reach their headquarters if you are wearing a mask; Others, in cities like New York, will not allow you to enter if not. I remember that I was on the phone to a friend who lived in Brooklyn in the summer of 2021 who was going to go, on a suffocating day, I mistakenly took a few steps outside her apartment without her mask. She did not think she might be at risk of publishing; It was socially unacceptable not to be hidden at all times in public places.

These days, though, all that has been abandoned. The mask was transferred to the garbage box for political images that are not intended to move. I remember Newspaper articles during the epidemic may become to wear the mask-and other measures taken to try to stop the spread of viruses-a characteristic of the cold and influenza season now after we are used to it, but this did not happen.

On the contrary, in fact – in London, it is very rare, now that anyone wearing a mask in public places. My friends in the United States told me that sometimes servers (often a patient’s wage is not often given if they are sick), but it is unusual to see them otherwise. The political player has become even that even the liberals do not seem to want to wear it, if they are considered merely signing virtue (which is a practice in itself Quickly get out of fashion).

I was thinking about this in recent weeks where I was slowly recovering from the worst virus (including four times with Covid) I can remember. High fever for 72 hours; A week hardly the ability to get out of the bed; Very continuous cough. A strange rash after the virus. I am not the only one: many of my healthy friends, colleagues and family members over the past few months have described with an aggressive flu in particular. There were a lot of important incidents in UK hospitals at the beginning of the year to the point that there recently the “influenza crisis”. Health officials said last month that they expect this influenza season to be “One of the worst” at all.

Was it better for some people to have decided to wear a mask in public places when he was infectious? It is difficult to know – there is still a dispute over the effectiveness of masks. From what I read and understood the way the respiratory viruses operate, I think it might have helped, at least a little.

Whether you agree or not, you may be severely affected by your policy, along with your views about vaccines and closure, and all types of points and the fungus of the cultural war that is not associated with loneliness such as Dei, whether Joe Biden is able to provide another four years such as the president, and until now, God helps us, Who blames war in Ukraine.

This is the problem in the culture of excessive discrimination: we lose our ability to see things with the nominal value, to judge policies and ideas on the basis of benefit. Instead, our perception of reality becomes blocked by any party lens we are looking for. Even it is supposed to be cold, Difficult economic data pervertedThere are now, for example, almost Gulf from five points Between the forecasts of inflation during the next year between Democrats and the Republicans.

So what can we learn from all this? We must try to resist the strong desire to politicize everything. If you include your beliefs on your CV on social media as if it were a kind of advertising that you are on the right side and that anyone who does not agree to be guilty in the event of an error, you should not be surprised when the other side doubles alone to oppose beliefs.

We have to choose: Either we give priority to living in a prosperous, healthy and stable society, or we give priority to tribalism; We cannot get both. If we continue to choose the latter, we will continue to lose our grip from reality, and we will continue to get stupid.

jemima.kelly@ft.com