Judge and jury

On the flight from RDU to Seattle most everyone was well-behaved and fully compliant with mask mandates. All except, of course, this one white guy. Five rows or so in front of me across the aisle. Somewhat heavy set, in his twenties, red hair, gym shorts and a sweatshirt, wearing headphones playing loud rap. He kept his mask on about 30-40% of the time, maybe. What's more, he was up and down pretty much constantly, going to the bathroom, getting more drinks. "Fucking idiot, asshole" I muttered to myself internally.

Then, when we deplaned, he didn't move from his seat, which confused me. As everyone was getting off, he waved energetically to all of us with a quasi-beatific smile and I understood. In 19th century terms, he was in fact an idiot. We would say that he is intellectually differently abled. He was traveling unaccompanied, like a child, and was waiting for a flight attendant to take him off.

Meanwhile, Seattle has not yet removed its mask ordinance, technically even for walking outside. Compliance on the streets is mixed. Maybe 50% of people seemed to be complying in the city center, almost none of them were out in Magnolia, where Mark lives. But there were plenty of people walking around alone wearing masks in town. Sometimes I saw people wearing masks while driving alone in cars, still. "Fucking idiots," I thought to myself.

The moral to the story is of course that I am the only one who isn't a fucking moron, and it's true for so many of us.