America's new sickness

Is it really this bad in America? Are people really going nuts about those who don't wear masks? I might do the Korean thing and give a mask-shunner the stink-eye, but that would be the extent of it. More likely, like many Koreans, I'd simply pass the person without a word while harboring quietly resentful thoughts.

The likelihood of catching SARS-CoV-2 from any given person is close to zero. People need to calm down. I already offered my own analysis of what's going on in Karens' heads here, but here's Dr. Karlyn's take:


Koreans act out in public, too, but they normally need to be either drunk or mentally ill to do so.* Americans, a much louder and more expressive species, will squawk and flap for the pettiest of reasons. That's a tendency that needs to be reined in, from my introverted point of view. Loud assholes are the death of us all. Ask anyone who's endured farts in an elevator.

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*In some cases, Koreans' native impatience can drive them to explosive anger, but at that point, I'd file the angry outbursts under "temporary mental illness."