That was a good rebuttal. My point, which apparently I didn't make very well, was that we accept some danger in order to avoid some limitations on liberty. It is not a binary tradeoff. We could choose to enforce those rules or make them more strict and save even more lives potentially, but we don't. Because society has decided to draw our line in a certain place on the liberty/safety spectrum. You and I and many others draw our lines in different places on this spectrum. That's fine. I don't dismiss other arguments against my position as being made by dumb, uninformed people. We need to be careful to avoid judging all the sides by their "worst" proponents.
I think we can find some common ground here. For example, I find 'helicopter parents' to be very frustrating. I am closer to (but admittedly still fall short of) the "free range parent". On the whole, our society overemphasizes "zero risk" policies of which I am not a fan, especially when it comes to children. In summary, I am not a fan of the "nanny state". So perhaps you find my vehement defense of masks incongruent.
However, I have a strong sense of duty to a cause larger than myself. So when there is a tradeoff between a minor inconvenience to myself (say a vaccine or in this case a mask in public places), I tend to err on the side on a minor personal inconvenience to help out the larger whole. When it comes to matters of personal responsibility that have consequences limited to the individual engaging in the activity, I tend to say that is their choice.
I'm curious - you haven't mentioned any concern with other communal health mandates. After all, clothing mandates for private businesses aren't even all that crazy. Have you tried entering a restaurant--or indeed any business--without a shirt or shoes? (I have) You'll be politely asked to leave. Why should your freedom to wear (or not wear) clothing of your choice be infringed by the proprietors of these establishments?
BTW- I used to think that these requirements ("no shirt, no shoes, no service") were part of local health codes, but as I was researching my comment here I came across this: https://people.howstuffworks.com/where-did-shirt-shoes-requi.... I have no idea if that's true or not, but I find it even more interesting that nobody has a problem complying with that rule but when it comes to reducing the risk of a highly contagious airborne virus, wearing a face covering is suddenly a huge imposition.
