This is Part Two of a three part series on masks. Part One covered the research on how masks have been proven to not stop spread and how cloth masks even dramatically increase respiratory infections, and Part Two here covers the social and moral reasons why mask-wearing is harmful to society and yourself, and should be avoided.
FACES ARE FUNDAMENTAL
ARE YOU CREATING DELUSIONAL PEER PRESSURE BY PARTICIPATION?
As we have seen above, masks have been shown to not work in the real world against Covid or other respiratory viruses, and actually contribute harm to social bonds and health.
In August of 2021, a survey at the Antelope Valley Mall showed that 60% of mall patrons did not approve of a mask mandate (in effect at the time). However, most of them were wearing masks anyway. The mall was not enforcing the policy – people could freely enter and do business without a mask, and some did - but through the *perception* of majority peer pressure and government pressure, people complied with what most of them believed was foolish.
This is what they were doing, and most of them wanted to stop but thought they were alone:
Seeing faces is essential to human connection and happiness. We were designed by God to see each others’ faces – to read and share our expressions. A smile brightens your face and sends happiness to others – literally. The brain produces serotonin when seeing a friendly or smiling face. We are coming out of an unprecedented crises of depression and youth suicidality due to lockdowns and masking: “44.2% experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, 19.9% had seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9.0% had attempted suicide.” (CDC - link ). It turns out that being able to see and show our God-given faces and not feel isolated is incredibly important.
Choosing to wear a mask sends out this message: “I consent to this system, I do not believe my face is important, I consider myself to be an infection risk to others and wish to be governed as such, I agree that masks work and that Covid is such a present threat we must damage society with masks” and “I grant bureaucrats the authority to impose orders on my body and my face.” It even seems to say, "I think you should wear one too."
Choosing to show one's face certainly not a sign of 'not caring;’ rather it is an assertion of the importance of human community and a visible step towards choosing to stop participating in a controlling and oppressive power dynamic; a system that has lied to us about masks, about the efficacy of vaccines, and has favored control over compassion.
Not wearing a mask, therefore, can make a positive statement: “We may have different perspectives, but I am affirming human dignity and freedom by showing my face. I do not view your face or my own face as a threat to society, to be controlled and covered by bureaucrats or corporations. As a fellow citizen, I believe that we can and should face each other with respect and empathy. If you choose to take your mask off, I will commend you.” Most people understand this now - they have come to agree that you should make your own personal choices about masking and vaccination.
In the first chapter of the Bible, it states that people are made spiritually “in the image of God”. It is self-evident that it is primarily by the face that we perceive a person's humanity and connect with one another. It is for this reason that regions that mandate full-body burkas have been condemned as inherently dehumanizing and incompatible with a free and respectful Western society. For the same reason, mask mandates and social pressure to mask should be seen as harmful to our dignity and our social bonds.
Bureaucrats and corporations do not have the legitimate authority to demand that members of the public cover up their faces to promote political-aims-disguised-as-public-health. Governments are instituted to secure natural rights, and to punish evil-doers (murderers, thieves, and the like). When they exceed their authority - as they have often done in the last two years - it is the God-given duty of citizens to rightly engage in non-compliance.
A large, randomized control trial of over 1600 hospital workers in 2015 showed that cloth masks *increased* the rate of respiratory infection (vs. no masks or surgical masks). You can rad about this in Part One. And yet in the Covid era, everyone was urged to wear… a cloth mask. This is one study of many - decades of solid research show that cloth masks are ineffective or harmful. On the other hand, politicians pushing mask mandates relied on unreliable computer models and absurdly small case studies. Surgical masks and even K95 masks (off-the-shelf and not fit tested) leak too much air around the sides and cannot provide meaningful protection for the wearer. They don't provide meaningful protection to others, either, as Covid is spread through exhaled nanoparticles that escape through and around masks and can hang in indoor air for hours in enclosed spaces; it is not spread through droplets as initially believed.
Bureaucrats demanded that bandmembers keep masks on their faces, but cut large holes in the front of their masks so they could play their instruments. Such masks are merely political - they are absurdly anti-science. They represent either an obsession with conformity, or magical thinking, or both.
Over the last two years there has been ample evidence that common cloth or surgical masks - even without large holes cut out - do not stop the spread, reduce transmission, or flatten the curve. The politicians and political agencies demanding masking are motivated by an agenda, not evidence.
POLITICAL SCIENCE, NOT SCIENCE-SCIENCE
It is the same kinds of politicians and activists who insist that men can become women but who refuse even define what a woman is ("an adult human female" would be a sensible answer), who are also the ones who demand you wear a cloth or surgical mask to stop a respiratory virus it cannot stop.
They also promised that vaccination would stop Covid in its tracks, based on no evidence at all (news flash: it didn't).
They demanded that you not leave your home, but at the same time they allowed hundreds of thousands of people to enter the country illegally and without Covid testing. They needlessly kept schools shut down and created an unparalleled mental health crisis in the youth which still endures, in which 40% said they felt hopeless and 9% attempted suicide.
When citizens declined vaccines that had not been sufficiently tested, the government and corporations threatened and bullied them, censoring doctors and citizens who wanted to discuss the facts. They divided us into "essential" and "non-essential" workers and created hostility. Vaccinated people actively sick with Covid were allowed to work while non-vaccinated people with immunity were shamed and fired. They fined outdoor church meetings but applauded massive crowds of BLM rioters. They ordered everyone else to mask but completely ignored their own mandates in an era of I'll make you comply, but I'm too fly.
It rapidly became clear that these politicians did not actually care about scientific inquiry or virus control. These are exactly the same people and policies that you signal public support for if you choose to cover your face with a mask.
Politically powerful groups openly stated to their followers that they viewed Covid-19 as an *opportunity* to reorganize society. They granted themselves emergency power and used it to advance causes they liked (riotous revolutionaries) and to suppress activities they didn't like (church meetings). They used the emergency powers to break down societal bonds, invert traditional virtues, grandstand their facade of compassion, and move closer to a radical Marxist reorganization of society.
Consider that the latest scare over monkeypox (spread almost exclusively by risky networks of homosexual contact - science.org, New England Journal of Medicine) does not include telling homosexuals to refrain from risky group "activities" or cancelling the permits for their sexualized events (clearly the primary means of spread), yet during Covid the government had no problem threatening and shaming churches into shutting down their activities.
The same people who aggressively promote "drag queen story hour" and say that all clothing is a form of drag, demand that you wear a pandemic costume on your face to show your conformity to the new social morality. These debasing, ideologically-motivated demands should be firmly rejected by those with a foundation of classical-Christian virtues, and those from the classical liberal tradition.
In summary:
All sensible or freedom-loving people should cease appeasing others with mask-wearing; they should resist masking whenever possible.
Masking harms society.
Masking against Covid or othe respiratory illnesses is anti-scientific.
The government or businesses open to the public have no moral or legitimate authority to mandate that people cover their face.
Mask-wearing is a symbol of compliance and agreement with foolish (and even malevolent) forces.
It is therefore the duty of wise and compassionate people to resist it as much as possible.
For these and other reasons, many people in law enforcement have warned against needless compliance with these "mandates" and informed the public that they would not be enforced. There is no legal recourse against people who choose to show their faces - "Go ahead and call the Sheriff's Department" is a perfectly safe thing to say in L.A. County and many other regions. The mandates are enforced by nothing other than the perception of peer pressure.
To wear a mask is to become a part of the peer pressure.
To read Part Three, It’s Time to Stop Being Part of the Pressure, click here.