CONDESCEND TOWARD YOUR NEIGHBOR.

Two vignettes from the contemporary Culture Wars.  First, an advice columnist at Esquire probably says more about Esquire readers than it does about life in whatever neighborhood the questioner lives.  Start with the question.

My neighbor across the street just put a giant Trump/Pence flag in their front yard. A week later―the day after the Breonna Taylor grand jury came back—he added a Blue Lives Matter flag to the pole. These people are very kind, perhaps the kindest and most generous people on our suburban block. And yet ... they're Trump supporters? They reject the idea of Black Lives Matter?

I don't know what to do about it. It's like a big middle finger, whether they know it or not. I'd like to put up a Biden sign, or a "Hate Has No Home Here" sign, to at least show the other neighbors, the people who drive by, and the delivery people that we don't share our neighbor's politics. But is that just an escalation? A middle finger to his middle finger? By putting up my own sign, and then seeking affirmation for that sign from strangers on social media, am I adding to the division in this country because it might fray my relationship with my neighbor? Should I instead knock on their door and begin a dialogue?

The advice columnist doesn't go anywhere near "dialogue" (probably a good thing, given what the woke understand dialogue to mean.) Rather, he suggests two versions of "your neighbor is a boor."

My suspicion is that he simply doesn’t see how any rational person could disagree with the messages of his front-yard signs, so he just put them up and hasn’t given it a second thought.

The other possibility is that he knows it’s a middle finger, and he just really likes giving people the middle finger.

Either way, he did not fret over his choice, so neither should you.

That's encouraging.

Second, Streetsblog weighs in on the no-mask car now being provided on the South Shore Line.  First, the background:  the South Shore Line, once understood as the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad runs along the south shore of Lake Michigan between Chicago and South Bend.  Second, Illinois is still under oppressive lockdowns, with the rookie governor betting on a sufficiently strong showing by national Democrats that his state will be bailed out in some future relief package, while Indiana is mostly open for business.  And the wearing of masks, or not, has become a political thing, with executive orders requiring their use being contested (the governors could call their legislatures into session and treat a long emergency like a long emergency, but I digress) and Indianans are not under the same requirements as Illinoisans (although the railroad could apply a common requirement to all passengers.)

That's the policy side of things.  Now comes the condescension, from a John Greenfield.

Worse, the designated COVID-denial friendly South Shore car was also the only car on the train with bike racks. Almost all of the passengers on board were mask-less. Disgusted, I parked my camping gear-loaded bike in a rack, locked the front wheel to the frame, and retreated to the next car, peeking though the door glass from time to time to keep an eye on my cycle. But it seemed pretty ironic that bike riders, people who are probably more likely than the general population to be health-conscious, were being encouraged to share an enclosed space and breath the same air as folks who are refusing to follow public health protocols.

There's a lot more in the post, including the possible usefulness of the separate car on other trains, and a recognition that the bike car and the mask-optional car ought not be the same care. Nowhere, though, does anyone address how the conductors and collectors are dealing with the situation: aren't they at somewhat greater risk lifting tickets in the mask-optional car?

Better, though, to call your neighbor a boor.

The South Shore Line president argued that, rather than making the railroad a national laughingstock, the Mask Optional Car policy may wind up being considered a best practice by peer rail systems. “Frankly, I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from other transit agencies saying, ‘What a great policy; I wish we could do it.’ I’ll admit it’s not a perfect system, but our approach is working.”

It’s certainly an interesting concept, the idea that segregating passengers who aren’t taking the pandemic seriously helps protect riders who are doing the right thing. On the other hand, it’s possible that concentrating all of these COVID deniers in one place, sort of like an indoor, mask-less Trump rally, makes it more likely they’ll infect each other, and then later pass along the disease to innocent bystanders.

That's an opportunity for future research.