You know what freedom creates?

"A very toxic environment."

On his first day in office, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin made masks optional in public and private schools. A fierce fight ensued.

A "fierce fight" has ensued over choice.

Alexandra Swan, 17, believes it is wrong to make snap judgments about other people.

"I see these people just not wearing a mask, or wearing one pulled down, like, under their chin," said Swan, "and my brain just immediately goes, ‘That person does not share the same ideals as me. We won't get along.' "

"That persons does not share the same ideals as me?"

Because they don't want to wear a mask?

What kind of moral foundation is this young woman's life built upon? TikTok videos?

She added: "They may not be a bad person..."

Oh good, she recognizes that this one choice, a personal health choice at that, doesn't mean they are a "bad person."

They may just be thinking the same things as their parents."

Their parents are the bad people.

"Before, when masks were all required, you didn't — it wasn't like you were making a statement," she said.

Imagine being forced to deal with interpersonal relationships with people who were not mandated to march in lockstep conformity with your belief system!

You know the result.

"This made everything so much worse."

As the adults battle over the merits of masking, Virginia students have been forced to navigate the real-life fallout.

The real-life fallout of having to deal with real life.

School now feels, Swan said, "like a war zone": a raging partisan battle that no one can opt out of, because every single student arrives with evidence of their politics — those without masks typically lean right, she said — written across their faces.

How bizarre it is that the decision to wear a mask or not is a political statement, but at least it's instructive.

Liberals favor conformity over individualism, and mandates over free choice.

Swan said she has stopped speaking with students who go maskless because they are dismissive of the decision to mask and unwilling to hear a different opinion.

She stopped speaking to them.

Because they were "unwilling to hear a different opinion."

Of course, this wouldn't be a Washington Post article if they didn't engage in some passive-aggressive woke racism.

Angela Rivera knew the dangers of speaking at a Loudoun County School Board meeting...

But Angela, who is Hispanic and serves as student school board representative, felt she had to speak in support of school mask-wearing...

She was barely through her first sentence thanking the school board when a group of mostly White parents in the audience began shouting.

Mostly white parents, in a county that is mostly white.

Meanwhile, in my place of residence,

As communicated last week, families will be able to opt their students out of wearing a mask in school beginning next Tuesday, March 1, in accordance with the recently passed Virginia law, Senate Bill 739.

APS will collect opt-out information for contact tracing only; opt-outs will not be monitored for any other reason.

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