>>723731025
You still see lots of mask-wearers of any affiliation at protests. Protestors and cops both wear them since they know they'll be recorded and under scrutiny. But most people, even conspiracy theorists, get their marching orders from whoever the president or current presidential candidate is around election time in the US.
Trump took credit for the covid vaccine rush and spending in 2020, so right-wingers all were fine with the vaccine outside of the then-fringe antivax crowd. When Trump lost the election, he pivoted to "everything the government is doing is gay", including the vaccines his administration and congress helped get developed and any government-recommended health tips (like wearing masks when in public). So wearing a mask quickly became a signal that you suck liberal cock and love communism or whatever to anyone even remotely right-wing-leaning at that point and it's pretty much stayed that way. Meanwhile, the rest of the world didn't have that happen and so countries like Japan, where wearing masks was always a thing when you're sick, just benefited from the massive rise in commercial mask production to the point that it gets used as a random fashion accessory at times. You see it a lot on streamers who want to hide some of their identity, so vtubers also do it as a style thing people are used to seeing.
It's all very weird to live through.
