Performative Compliance...whaaat?

I’m going to coin a new phrase here. At least I have not come across it elsewhere: Performative Compliance.This refers to the actions of states, cities, businesses, schools in the face of the persistent threat of COVID-19. I’ve been thinking about this since I temporarily left my Eugene Bubble and ventured out into one of those states that is not, to put it mildly, part of the “blue sweep” many of us are hoping (and working) for 13 days from now.I think there may be 3 levels of compliance to those protocols SHOWN and PROVEN to mitigate the spread of the virus.First is true adherence. Every public indoor place has a “no admittance without a mask” sign prominently displayed. And THERE IS NO ADMITTANCE WITHOUT A MASK. As in, enforced. Public indoor places have FLOOR MARKINGS  to help people stay at least 6 feet apart from each other. Other spaces are reconfigured to make this possible. GLOVES and hand sanitizer are everywhere. In restaurants (with indoor or outdoor seating), there are no ketchup bottles, salt and pepper shakers on the table, nothing that would be touched by many people. And much more.The second is what I have discovered in my out-of-the-bubble experience: Performative Adherence. I’ll just give this one example. On one end of a table is an ice/ water dispensing machine operated by 2 touch buttons. Two feet away, on the other end of this table, taped to the table itself (so not at eye level) is a sign that says you should wipe down high-touch surfaces. The wipes are not there. The wipes are in an unmarked plastic container on a shelf located elsewhere. Did anyone who used the ice machine see the sign, find the wipes and obey? I stood to the side and watched 4 people. No one saw the sign. Each person touched the button the previous person had touched.Did the facility comply to the “wipe surfaces” mandate? You be the judge.The third level, which I have not experienced but, like all of you, have read about in social media, or seen in videos featuring parades of the maskless marching through big box stores, is no compliance at all. These are folks who call COVID the “Wu-Han virus” and believe the ongoing pandemic is mostly a figment of the Left’s imagination. Their interpretation of our President’s recent bout of illness is: See, it’s not that dangerous. Or: What a dude! How strong! How invincible!It’s Level 2 that I find so disturbing. Entities pretending to obey mandates and policies but making it easy for no one to obey. Doing what you have to do to avoid litigation but not what you are supposed to do to avoid creating an unhealthy environment. It’s the sneakiness of it, the backhandedness of it. At least the maskless mobs are “true” to their beliefs.