It occurred to me that the emotional basis behind the emphatic support the Left has for lockdowns and mask wearing has to be related to their instinctive Puritanism and self loathing. The lockdowns and mask mandates give them an excuse to express their hatred–of all things and people–generally; to take their own arbitrary self constrictions and inflict them on all of us.
Maybe one day those of us who hate masks and generally refuse to wear them will not only have to wear masks, but wear scarlet A’s, for “anti-mask” in public, so that we can be shamed by the masses. That is the emotional tone I am seeing.
There is no love in any of this. “Love” as such people see it, is an insincere performative act. Same with compassion and joy. There is no humanism there, no humanity. It is misanthropic to the core.
I have been reposting this article from time to time for ten years. It remains very relevant. This is the emotional and to some unknown but clearly important extent the political and “scientific” background to all this: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/all-the-leaves-are-brown/