Masks and public health guidance, in general, have become symbols, for many on the right, of not wanting to let go of the pandemic, and of the looming permanence of so many changes to daily life. And, given the early and sharp partisanship infecting every aspect of this national emergency, everything associated with COVID caution has also become part of the culture war. Out of all of that, somehow, comes the idea that trying not to get sick has some sort of suspicious political and moral valence. It’s less a literal statement than a statement of frustration.

There are other extremely odd opinions emanating from portions of the right. For example, the idea that masks are bad because they violate a supposed norm about showing your face in public; that medicine is merely an adjunct to religion; or that avoiding obvious risk of injury or illness is evidence of metaphysical or character weakness.

But there’s something else going on here, I think, beyond negative partisanship, or mere frustration leading to hyperbole. There’s also a tendency towards abstraction, towards turning practical questions into metaphysical questions, towards seeing everything through the lens of a battle of ideas. For example, comparing mask-wearing to campus safe spaces is amusing, but it pulls us away from looking at the public health issues at hand in a clear-eyed manner. Suggesting that risk is inherent to life, or that the spiritual life is also “essential,” raises important questions, but it serves to divert us from very real, specific, and diverse trade-offs people have to make.