Yeh I’m agnostic about the efficacy of masks. One or two layers of cloth doesn’t stop breath any better than it stops a fart. Nobody wants a naked butt farting in their face, but nobody wants someone coughing or sneezing into their face either. Most people over the age of five know how to cover a cough or sneeze though. We’re breathing the same air, mask or not.

I dislike the negative social aspects of masks. It’s pretty dehumanizing to be forcibly masked, let alone walking through hordes of masked people. It’s very Eyes Wide Shut.

Then there’s the sketchiness of the virus and disease itself. Symptoms include… everything. Is it a bioweapon like the ex-head of MI6 says. Or is it definitely not, like the current head of MI5 says. When academic questions come down to who’s less trustworthy, things are as shitty as when political questions come down to who’s less of a crook.

Then there’s the media blitz of panic. The administrative orders that have sent covid patients into nursing homes. The plethora of authoritarian, often blatantly illegal, executive orders. How they’ve changed how we determine cause of death from recording what we know to recording assumptions. The absolutely criminal economic shutdown and ensuing “economic relief” bill that watchdogs are calling “the most massive transfer of wealth in the history of the world” in a time of already unprecedented economic inequality.

The inconsistency of calling people protesting the lockdowns covidiots and then turning around and pretending like the virus somehow knows not to infect BLM protests. Oh yeh, and then there’s the protests that police tactics turned into riots all spurred by more media manipulation and a very very suspicious murder… I’ll not even get into that right now.

It’s all happening in an election year. Doctor and nurse whistleblowers going viral on social media with reports that many of the reported deaths can be chalked up to medical malpractice. Other epidemiologists and medical doctors questioning the erroneous models, the draconian response, and the very existence of the virus itself. The hordes of people simultaneously insisting that there would be whistleblowers if there was a conspiracy while ignoring and vilifying anyone who dares question the presumed authorities, regardless of their credentials or experience or lack of malicious motive.

I’d be terrified if I wasn’t so entertained by all this. If I actually thought the threat was real, and that we only had a chance of mitigating it collectively, I might be right there with the herd calling for violence against anti-maskers in the name of protecting everyone else.

But I suspect that it’s mostly hysteria. If it isn’t, and it’s as threatening as they say, I doubt society’s ability to come together to beat this thing. On the other hand, I feel quite inspired by what collective action has taken place. I kinda wish the media would beat these very same wardrums to combat other deadly diseases, like statism, greed, and environmental ignorance. I can only imagine the utopia of tomorrow if a majority of people were called to action to solve those problems as we’ve been called to action to solve what they’re telling us is a slightly deadly cold.

I guess a large part of it is that I don’t fear death. I’ve had my psychotic forays into hyperspace. I’ve sang with the machine-elves. I’ve left my earthly body behind before, and I will again. Slavery begins with the fear of death. I refuse enslavement.

I wear a mask to fit in. I wear a mask to avoid unpleasant social interactions. I don’t wear a mask to protect people from me. It’s pretty similar to the reasons I don’t carry a gun. I’m more concerned with daily life than I am with staying alive.

All in all, I wish people weren’t such assholes. I wish I could go without a mask without feeling like I need a gun to protect myself from people who’re so scared of dying they’re willing to enact violence against others. That’s only a little hyperbolic.

Credit u/RobertAntonWilson I would’ve linked in comments if I wasn’t banned from publicfreakout