My favorite reply to them is that it's America and I can do whatever I want, I'll call them snowflakes too whenever appropriate. They get pissed when you insinuate they're anti American lul.

Someone once told me that the box in which masks came in says "doesn't protect from viruses", as if it was hidden-in-plain-sight proof that masks don't work.

Yeah, they don't protect the user from viruses, they protect other people. The box is technically correct, Patricia, there is no conspiracy here.

I think they actually do understand but don't have enough empathy with other people to see it as their responsibility to protect other people from their viruses.

Not that someone as perfect as them would ever sick enough to potentially infect others...

Claims are not evaluated, in the loyalist worldview. They're not arguments. They're slogans. You shuffle your cards and say whatever might justify the ingroup being fundamentally superior to the outgroup. Because of course, it is impossible for someone to simply be wrong. That would require evaluating claims. No: truth is dictated by people above you. They must be right and smart and handsome, or they wouldn't be above you. Any challenge, any criticism, any disagreement, is a personal attack. You are calling someone lesser.

And I say "you" because these people think this is all we're doing. They think that's all there is. It's reality as a team sport.

Or, more likely, they're selfish jerks who don't care about anyone else. "The greater good? What's that?"

Their actual position is that they don't give a fuck about anyone other than themself. Everything they claim to believe is just a rationalization they think will sound good to someone else. All they care about is what they can convince others.