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North Carolina Senate votes to ban people from wearing masks in public for health reasons

NC Senate votes to ban people from wearing masks in public for health reasons

https://www.wral.com/story/nc-senate-votes-to-ban-people-from-wearing-masks-in-public-for-health-reasons/21433199/

The North Carolina Senate plans to vote Wednesday to ban people from wearing masks in public for health reasons, institute harsher penalties on protesters, roll back juvenile justice reforms, raise toll road late fees, modernize sex crime laws and let billboard companies cut down more trees.

Republican supporters of the ban said it would help police crack down on protesters who wear masks

House Bill 237 would ban everyone, not just protesters, from wearing masks in public for medical reasons if it becomes law. It passed 30-15, with every Republican in favor and every Democrat opposed.

35 comments

goose

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Sometimes I really fucking hate this place instead of just regular fucking hating it

Our family will still mask when we're indoors in public regardless of the laws around it

edge

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Oh fun, I guess I’m about to become a criminal.

FlakesBongler

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I've been a criminal for a loooooong time

Just that now, I'm gonna be a masked criminal instead of a hood and sunglasses criminal

Wertheimer

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Batch and Grafstein each proposed amending the bill in ways they said would still give police the power that Republicans have said they want, to crack down on masked protesters, but to add back in legal protections for people who wear masks for public health reasons.

Compromise!

davel

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Yeah perhaps this was gamed from the start https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_effect

SacredExcrement

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"We'll only let you shoot 75% of us, not 100%"

dead

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Posting this as a throwback story of NC history.

In response to the white supremacist Charleston Church Shooting of June 2015, there were public protests for the removal of confederate monuments from public property. In July 2015, North Carolina passes a law which makes it illegal for local governments to remove confederate statues from public property.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_History_Artifact_Management_and_Patriotism_Act_of_2015
https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/SessionLaws/HTML/2015-2016/SL2015-170.html

sappho

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I feel this is the first of many laws like this. I haven't felt this deeply crushed, hopeless, and afraid for a very long time. It's hard to keep going when your life is so small and everyone in power is bent on making it even smaller. I don't know how I will do it, and sometimes I wish I wouldn't keep trying.

itappearsthat

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It helps to read history. People have persevered under way, way more brutal regimes than this. And won. Before the 1917 revolution people operated under the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police, who could disappear and torture you for any reason whatsoever. Striking workers were massacred by the hundreds. And still people organized. They persevered. And they won.

ryepunk

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Such freedom in America.

operacion_ogro

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Republican supporters of the ban said it would help police crack down on protesters who wear masks

he-admit-it

JohnBrownNote

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my uncle is a lawyer and he says killing someone trying to take your mask off of you is self-defense.

roux

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Republican supporters of the ban said it would help police crack down on protesters who wear masks

Tell me you know you're the bad guy without telling me you know you're the bad guy.

FourteenEyes

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I'm going to go on a limb here and assume that this was slammed through so quickly they didn't think about people who literally have to wear a mask on the job, like construction workers filling in insulation, and it's just going to create a giant expensive mess for a few months before it's thrown out by the courts for being absolutely asinine

PolandIsAStateOfMind

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like construction workers filling in insulation

They want this back:

operacion_ogro

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Asbestos shovelling competition lmao

Now excuse me while I go to my work-sponsored microplastic eating challenge

stigsbandit34z

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This was always the end goal let’s be honest. Any time the marginalized repurpose a tool for use to benefit all, it’s always going to be swiftly squashed. Especially in a surveillance state

“Bug bug bug my China is a surveillance state!!!!!!1111” OK? But it seems that most of the people living in China can afford to live (i.e. the bare fucking minimum)

The bar doesn’t even exist in amerikkka

OgdenTO

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China, famous for being a place where people aren't allowed to wear masks

cricbuzz

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deeply unserious country

RION

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covid when it has a state-wide incubator POG-19

Dirt_Owl

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~~Health reasons~~ Camera reasons

Wear your mask

QueerCommie

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The evil liberal surveillance state wants to force me to wear a mask, so I will get my good more reactionary surveillance state to prevent anyone to do so.

cream_provider

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Also passing the Senate Wednesday were bills that would: Modernize sex crime laws to address new technologies like artificial intelligence. Increase toll road late fees by 50%. Allow billboard companies to cut down more trees on the roadside. Automatically charge 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in many felony cases, a partial reversal of juvenile justice reforms that went into effect in 2019.

They’re really on a roll over there. Not that the democratic governor is going to sign ~~any of this bullshit~~ the mask ban

Wertheimer

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Yeah, they've had similarly performative vice-signaling bills in recent legislative sessions: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a40543385/north-carolina-wants-remove-free-public-ev-chargers/

Edit - Although it looks like the Republicans have the votes to override a veto on the mask ban, so this one might not end up being performative.

LaughingLion

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Wear the mask for fashion reasons.

SwitchyWitchyandBitchy

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For all you who may be in NC, I've found a good way to talk some sense into some people (you gotta feel 'em out a little bit) is to point out that masks make facial recognition based surveillance harder. This law would potentially make the argument way stronger to those open to coinspiracy theories.

OgdenTO

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But this is literally the reason that they're doing it. It's not even a conspiracy. they said it

qaopjlll

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Seriously, you'd have better luck changing the minds of people who support this bill by telling them that the Radical Liberals leaked chemicals into the air that turn you gay and trans when you breath them in and you need to wear a mask to avoid exposure

Wolfman86

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Are they going to make all safety devices illegal?

Rx_Hawk

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State legislatures are so grossly gerrymandered.

Also, surely this is unconstitutional?

nothx

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Carolina is just Florida for people who still like to feel superior to Florida.