the politics of masks

First, a definition: mask in the text below refers to Covid-19 mouth and nose coverings.
 
Making it as simple as I can for the sake of cutting through the politics of mask wearing, let me state my position on wearing a mask in a two-sentence declaration.

1 - I am in favor of me wearing a mask at the present time.
2 - I am not in favor of any government mandate on mask wearing, either requiring or prohibiting them.

I will not dispute or support here any science-based reasons for wearing or not wearing masks, because I'm not arguing science here; I'm arguing politics and public policy. It may appear at first glance that my two numbered statements above are contradictory, but I want to briefly explain why they are not.  Instead, both statements are in harmony with my deeper general principles of the role of government in our lives. 

Those general principles could be summed up by announcing that I consider myself a small "l" libertarian in most situations.  I'm generally in favor of keeping governments as tiny and as unobtrusive as possible.  I'm mostly in favor of personal freedom and personal responsibility in most cases. Given my proclivities, it naturally follows that I do not favor government forcing me to do something, even if I think it's a good idea to do that thing in the abstract.

My position on masks mirrors my position on guns with a similar two-sentence declaration.

1 - I am in favor of me being armed.
2 - I am not in favor of any government mandate on firearms, either mandatory carry or mandatory disarming. 

In both examples, masks and guns, I favor doing what I believe is correct for me in the given situation without any government interference.  My wearing a mask is not a virtue signal of liberalism.  Nor is it any comment on anyone else's choice, and it's most definitely not an assertion on what anyone else should do.