There are many wrongs regarding mandatory (or mass) wearing of face coverings. Evidently there is nothing wrong with not wearing them, as it's never been done before in this country (at least not in living memory)
The people who ask you to do that are not thinking of the effects on people with disabilities such as hearing difficulties.
That's a false equivalence; the wearing of black ties don't cause any difficulties for people who are hard of hearing.
An authoritarian response to authoritarianism? That's a rather interesting view! For someone to be behaving in such a manner I'd say they'd have to be mandating the non-wearing of masks. As I said above, my local leisure centre has a sign stating "Masks are optional" and that is exactly what I am calling for. The authoritarians don't want such signage because they know that wording it this way would see very few people wearing them!
Feel free to put your case forward in this thread:
https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ating-of-their-use.219985/page-7#post-5242026 ; did you read the links I provided in that thread?
Anyway I just got back from Morrisons, where I'd say it was about 50/50, which is pretty much what I'd hoped for. This is a store where compliance when it was legally mandated was 100% (and beyond; it was incredibly rare to see people unmasked, which suggests to me that many exempt people felt pressured into wearing them)
Mandatory masks was always going to be very divisive to our society. When they ceased to be mandated, the language used by some organisations/individuals to encourage them has been appalling. People are naturally going to have a view about this. Also, some people want to be able to post their observations. If people don't want to read it, it's pretty easy to avoid this thread!
As for making points, this thread is more for observations and experiences than actually discussing the effectiveness of masks; there is a separate thread for that.
That is entirely your choice.
But if you're aiming that at me, I make no apologies for standing up for people with medical conditions, anxieties and hidden disabilities who have had a really tough time with mask mandates who were looking forward to a more inclusive society who are now having a slower path to that normality, due to militant messaging by some organisations.
I've been verbally abused and threatened for standing up for people who are exempt from wearing face coverings (while wearing one myself, I will add). I've been the victim of crime to the tune of £2.5k due to a crime that would not have been attempted if it was not for the normalisation of face coverings.
I have repeatedly said I am happy with wording such as "masks are optional"; my argument is
not against optional mask wearing where it is made clear that it's optional (with no pressure applied or attempt to make people feel guilty) but I am deeply unhappy with organisations trying to shame or bully people into wearing them (such as LNER)
I have no issue with places like my local leisure centre where it is made clear that masks are optional and around 20% or so of people wear them. It's clearly their choice and they are not pressured into it.
I'm not sure what you mean by "other approaches which are more considerate of others"; if this is a suggestion that people who do not wear face coverings are not being considerate, then you are entitled to that opinion, but I reject that for the reasons stated above.