Normal as F***: A Dispatch from Texas
What life is like in Texas in Year 2 of the 'Roni
As I recently covered the ‘Roni Authoritarianism of various governments, I’d also like to highlight what life is like in one of the few places on the planet NOT subject to petty tyrants leveraging a mass psychosis.
Welcome to Texas, where life is normal as fuck.
To be fair, I do still see some masks around - but that’s mainly a function of living in Dallas, which is blue (it went 65% to 33% for Biden in the 2020 election). The grocery store I go to reflects this fairly well: there’s probably ~2 masks for every 1 unmasked person, though it is clear the majority of the masked realize they don’t actually do anything and are wearing them out of a social politeness. But no one gives me any dirty looks as I roam through the grocery store without one. True believers can be spotted wearing their N-95s tight to the face, but these are few and far between.
Beyond that though? I barely see a mask, let alone need to wear one. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to put one on (minus flying) in the past nine months: visiting a museum once, a doctor’s appointment… that might be it? Even my dentist has thankfully dispensed with any and all ‘roni safety theater.
Restaurants are packed, bars too. Even way back on St. Patrick’s Day we walked right into a crowded bar. I think the bartender had a mask around his chin? But we’ve been going to a bunch of places: small crowds, large crowds, outdoors, indoors, et cetera.
Thankfully most venues have dropped the mask charade for their employees as well. It’s much nicer seeing a face and leads to more human interactions than when one person is hidden behind a mask. They’d be free to wear one, of course, but I can’t imagine the restaurant worker who’d want to work for 8 straight hours with a diaper strapped to their face.
Socially, we know that some people in our friend group have been vaxxed, some have not. We know this from genuine inquiry and friendly discussion. At least a few people got vaxxed due to pressures from family, work, or a desire to travel. But we’d never actually discriminate against anyone in our group on the basis of their choice because, guess what, we’re not sociopaths!
I mean, I could keep going and describe all the normal things we do here: hug friends, shake hands with strangers, and on and on and on. Here is what you can do: remember what your life was like in 2019. We do that, and it feels quite unremarkable because it is unremarkable.
Really, the only impacts on living normally come from the pressures of out-of-state entities: the federal government and their unconstitutional mandates and coercion of companies and the various travel restrictions. Uber still requires masks, I guess, so we’ve taken to driving to the airport and paying for parking rather than subjecting ourselves to that idiocy.
The biggest downside is that there are so few places we can go if we want to vacation in a similarly sane environment. We’ve got Florida and a few other Southern states in the winter and places like Idaho and Wyoming in the summer. But most countries too have submitted to Covid insanity, especially with regard to travel. Why would I want to visit a glorified prison colony on a vacation? No thanks.
But for those who live in these depressing prison colonies on our coasts or abroad, I do encourage you to come visit Texas in 2022. See what life is like here! Fly on over, leave your vax card at home and drop your face diaper in the trash as you exit the airport. And you can live normally, at least for a little while.
Maybe seeing such wonders will help you grow the courage to push for such a radical lifestyle in your own states or nations.