The pandemic has made a mockery of the comfortable assumptions about Americans, Europeans, and freedom. That’s largely due to a diminishing sense of what it means to be an American.

Let’s take a quick look at some mandatory masking polls.

A new survey finds Coloradans in favor of the “safer-at-home” restrictions imposed last week by Gov. Jared Polis by a wide margin, with an even larger share of metro-area residents approving their local officials’ decisions to extend stricter “stay-at-home” orders through this week.

Mandatory face mask orders, for instance, are supported by 87% of Democrats, 79% of unaffiliated residents and 68% of Republicans. The safer-at-home policy is supported by 63% of Democrats, 66% of unaffiliated residents and 75% of Republicans.

Meanwhile over in Finland…

Most people in Finland do not want face mask use to be obligatory, according to an Yle-commissioned opinion survey.

One-third of respondents supported a policy of recommending mask use in public places, but not making them compulsory.  Meanwhile only 10 percent of those queried said they supported the obligatory use of such personal protective devices in shops and on public transport.

Almost one-half of respondents (47 percent) said that the decision to use face masks should be left to the individual.

Left up to the individual? That’s crazy. How can you trust individuals to do the right thing without being compelled to it?

And over in Quebec.

A vast majority of Quebecers strongly support the idea of making masks mandatory while out in public during the novel coronavirus pandemic, a new poll shows.

Polls like these are about more than epidemiology. They reveal our place on the balance between the individual and the state.