Florida residents protesting mandatory masks is like a 'Parks and Rec' fever dream
A handful of folks in Palm Beach County, Florida have some... ideas... about not wearing masks. And those ideas touch on everything from "devil love," to the constitution, to Bill Gates needing to be jailed for entirely unclear reasons.
The anti-mask crusaders made their voices heard on Tuesday ahead of a vote where the county's board of commissioners would ultimately pass a measure requiring people to wear masks in public.
To be clear: This is a good thing. Masks have been proven to be really good at slowing or preventing transmission of the deadly coronavirus. These public commenters disagree and honestly, a viral super-cut from CNN feels like a deranged version of the hilarious public forums on the sitcom Parks and Recreation.
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Somehow, that CNN video doesn't even contain all of the weirdness from Tuesday's forum.
“My name is Butch Dias, and I am an American patriot,” yelled one man not featured in the video, according to the Daily Beast. “See that flag? I would die for that flag! The Constitution that you are supposed to uphold, I would die for that!”
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Proclaimed another commenter, who also asked why Gates and Hillary Clinton weren't imprisoned: "Are you insane? Are you crazy? I think all of you should be in a psych ward right the heck now. Because none of you, none of you know what the hell you are talking about. This is insane. And then you want to open the meeting with a prayer to God. Are you praying to the devil? Because God is not listening to that prayer. Because all of you are practicing the devil’s love."
Despite the protestations from certain members of the public, the commissioners voted unanimously to pass the measure requiring mask-wearing in public places.
While the masks are a good step, Palm Beach County and Florida as a whole is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases. The state recorded a record 5,508 new cases on Wednesday. Palm Beach County, meanwhile, saw 356 new cases, a three percent rise.
Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
