How is /anybody/ believing this mask story more?
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The argument early on was that it reduces the spread by a small amount, and if 2 people are wearing masks, it's a 70% reduction. Same for anything that isn't N-95 (like cloth masks). Turns out it is actually a 0.5% decrease in daily cases within 20 days, to a 1.8% decrease within 81-100 days.
https://patriots.win/p/12hkd8yVKb/new-cdc-report--mask-mandates-lo/c/
I brought up with a pro-masker that mask maybe reduce cases by 1% and he called me ignorant and linked a news story that said masks were estimated to prevent 200,000 cases in the US (at the time there were 20,000,000 cases). I pointed out to him that 20,000,000/200,000 is 1% so he fell back to "if it saves one life." Which when you break down that they don't actually believe that they fall back to "masks are effective."
They have moved beyond motte and bailey. They have an infinite staircase of motte and baileys, a set of arguments that aren't consistent with each other but because you can only attack one position at a time they can pick the current argument and move to the next motte. "? Masks work." -> "Masks barely work at best." -> "? If it saves one life." -> "You don't hold that standard for anything else." -> "? It's a pandemic we have to do something." -> "It doesn't matter if you do something if it barely works." -> "? Mask work." -> ...
I think they just put selective pressure on the disease to spread on smaller and smaller particles, increasing infectivity over the long run.
Seems less like an infinite staircase and more like this one.
Common "debate" style for dishonest people... you either have to seize them by the tail and force them to admit you've won, or walk away and ignore them.