Did they pose it that way? I feel that must've been short lived. The dems jumped on the virtue signaling pretty much immediately, and as I understand it, virtue signaling only works with the message that it protects others (because we can volunteer to not protect ourselves, that's not selfish, but if we don't want to protect others, we're bad people)
To Taco's point: For my part, I've always felt there's a difference between passive assholery and active assholery. Not caring about people ODing... that's passive. If you don't wear a mask when it's recommended, that might be passive too (I never wear one where not required)
But if you're rallying against masks, making up shit about them, screaming that they do nothing, etc... that's active assholery.
On the other side of the fence, telling someone to put on their mask or criticizing them for not, that's assholery too (with the exception being store employees who have to tell customers where required).
I don't critique people for not wearing a mask (actually, I've been the one critiqued), but I will push back about inaccurate/false claims.