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Yesterday, I posted a brief piece on #ThirstMasking in my Musings blog (available here on somberamarath.com under the writing section). This came after several days of tracking a definitive shift in the tone of the discourse in and around the COVID informed community. My first impression was that we were seeing the rise of a new movement, ala #YallMasking, aimed at normalizing masking in a novel way given the behemoth COVID surge that we are currently experiencing and the looming gargantuan surge that is expected just over the horizon. After some light investigation, I arrived at the conclusion that can be read in the post that I uploaded to my Musings blog yesterday titled "Ya'll Thirst Masking?" In short, I concluded in the piece that we are not witnessing a new #YallMasking. Instead, we are witnessing a new #SaltingTheVibes.

It looks like we have another mask trend making the rounds in and around the COVID conscious community. When I last took the time to consider the trends within the COVID conscious community, I found myself positively delighted and pleasantly surprised with just how sweet and communal the vibes created by the "ya'll making?" seemed overall. At the time, I took the time to explain the reasons behind my general aversion to trends of most kinds. This time, however, the vibes are not just the polar opposite of the "ya'll masking?" movement, (which continues to trend rather strongly I am happy to report) but they are down right spiteful (which is right in the center of my wheelhouse). As I have explained to a variety of my mutuals online by this point, I am surviving out of