[bserge]

It's not much of a consolation, but "forced" back then meant "no other options" (except death). People were Shanghaied onto ships, forced to work for someone else for little to no pay, or because they simply had debts, and they had no state-mandated rights.

Lots of people have sacrificed their lives to give us a better one. I'm only from an ex-USSR country, and I've never been to countries worse off, but from what I read, workers rights have taken hold pretty much everywhere.

The anti-maskers/pro-authoritarians part was in reply to "people are gathering in groups based on their levels of competence, interests and views".

Yes, everyone gathers in their own groups with narrow views, and they don't have to live or even communicate with people who have different views. So they don't even try to understand the opposing point of view. It's automatically just them "being dumb", "just wrong" or "fake news" or whatever.

It might make for more effective social associations in the short term, but I don't see how it's sustainable in the long term. It's the same exact type of divide that exists between the wealthy and the rest.