It's Just A Mask

....It's just a Jew....

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good," --C.S. Lewis

Like a person infected with TDS, I won't bother to try and discuss the effectiveness of masks with a believer. It makes them feel too good and safe.

On a voluntary basis, this is not a problem. It's when this person's view prevails and becomes mandated it becomes more pernicious. I want to make this point clear from the onset. I really don't have a problem with masks as a voluntary act. Nor will you be seeing me in the news making a scene. It's not worth the hassle. Though if I do get ticketed I may contest it or just frame it as a badge of honour. You can't fight City Hall in the middle of a mass hysteria. So I'll just quietly readjust my shopping patterns to online shopping if the borders open, hopefully the mask mandate virus won't hit the spots I enjoy going to.

I just don't think at this stage in the game it's all that rational and above all, don't think it's justified based on the science. I mean, we're always told how everyone 'follows the science'. I think it's clear they follow the science they want to follow and the rest they expect orders to take over. 

Let me be as blunt as possible:

Medical masks are USELESS in a public setting.

And cloth mask research does show some benefits, it's not backed by empirical evidence.

Yet, the belief in its effectiveness (you can just sense people in their minds trying to bend spoons so to speak) has taken another more pernicious turn.

In the absence of evidence, go for the emotions. 

One woman from some tabloid channel called CNN was blaming the Governor of Texas for the the death of her grandmother because he didn't make masks mandatory earlier. Apparently, this belief can be applied retro-actively. We have zero evidence a mask would have saved lives. The very idea of masks = saved lives is rooted in pure bunk science. 

Another fallacy circulating is the reason why schools are closed is because people didn't wear masks.

This one really angers me. 

The utter superstitious arrogance of people who have the audacity to make this specious and pseudo-scientific claim don't realize their thoughtless stupidity is akin to child abuse if you ask me.

If they're so into 'following the science' they'd know this virus doesn't impact children like it does other demographics - specifically the elderly. Nor do are they main spreaders of it. They're making the kids pay a price for their ignorance that crosses into malice. Not to mention they project their fears onto them. Such people should be tongue-lashed with a lesson.

Truly despicable morons.

"Mother should have faith in life, hence not be overanxious, and thus not infect the child with her anxiety. Part of her life should be the wish that the child become independent and eventually separate from her. Father's love should be guided by principles and expectations; it should be patient and tolerant, rather than threatening and authoritarian. It should give the growing child an increasing sense of competence and eventually permit him to become his own authority and to dispense with that of father."

Eric Fromm.

Moving on.

And if you care to carefully observe, the way these things are being used, may as well go maskless.

We truly are teaching people to form habits based on specious science.

We don't accept specious logic in other areas, so why should we here?

James Madison, in Federalist No. 10, warns of impetuous mobs or factions "united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."

In just, what, five days into this foul mandate and we've had a Keystone Cops inspire arrest and an attack on free speech towards a teacher who was expressing their opinions - some of it conspiratorial in nature - in Montreal. I'm sorry, I see no difference in a teacher who has conspiracies about 5G Networks and one who teachers racist, Propaganda from a Marxist group like BLM. In fact, the latter is far more dangerous because I'm sure that's actually being taught or discussed in class. I doubt this teacher discussed mandatory vaccines (which by the way, is not exclusively the domain of conspiracy theories as Alan Dershowitz publicly calls for them). 

This doesn't bother people because most want to just get on with it, but it does for me because it's not about the masks but the about human psychology and its propensity to suspend rational thought if they believe they're doing good.

In the absence of hard, empirical evidence as is the case for masks  (sorry Pro-Maskers. The science is on the other side. And as such doesn't back up mandating them), we sort to emotional ploys to submit to authority.

'I'm doing it for others', for example, is oneway  to get someone to go along with the notion they're doing good (without considering the potential trade-offs that may question this).

After all, what kind of a selfish person wouldn't want to do it?

We should reject this notion as Madison warned. Go to the evidence. If the evidence says do it, do it. If it doesn't, it doesn't mean you shouldn't. It could very well have some beneficial impacts. The difference is in the voluntary/obligatory calculus.

I don't think the evidence justifies mandating masks though I don't have a problem if people feel strongly enough to to wear them voluntarily.

That's what it means to be free. 

You avoid tyranny of the majority or minority by this simple axiom respecting others. But we've just signalled to the government 'yes, take us if you protect us!' 

Ah! But you feel that person is potentially doing you harm if they don't comply. So much so you consent to allowing the government to use coercion through the police to force people into soothing your fears. It's my contention that the second you accept this under the guise of security, you lost the plot and are in fact in the wrong because you just created a police state.

Just because you think your cause is just doesn't make it not so. Right now in Quebec and other places, we're in a benign police state that increase at the whim of its leaders. Citizens aren't allowed to move around with personal agency. They must live under the threat of a fine. 

The trickery of the Orwellian 'mask is liberty' notion is meant to deflect from this fact. It's not liberty. It's slavery. It's the Sword of Damocles on your neck.

Statistically and scientifically, there's no justification for an indefinite mask mandate. At this point, the government probably now sees a nice gaping hole to exploit should they need it.

People who read history probably view it through the lens of  'we'd never do that because we're so much more evolved'.

This is a mistake. The way you should read it is, how would you fit in this story? One of Dr. Peterson's main over arching message is our inability to confront our proclivity to do harm or evil.

On any level on any degree. For example, censoring someone's opinion may seem harmless if you believe hate speech is real. But hate speech is meaningless on its own as there's only just speech. Once we accept this iron-clad reality, you will will you're not only doing harm to the person (think how you'd feel if you were silenced for you opinion) but the community and nation at large.

When people read history, there's a tendency to read it as if it was just a tale disconnected from the universal laws of human nature that apply to all of us throughout our existence. We read it and think that it can never happen to us or that we could never be so barbaric.

Guess what? We're no more intelligent or more sophisticated or peaceful than at any other point in history. We possess the same penchant ability to succumb to superstition, envy, fears and other vices as those we mock from another age. In fact, I argue we're actually worse because we not only arrogantly fail to grasp this fact but actual have regressed. 

If you don't realize you're capable of your own malevolence, you can't keep it in check. 

Any kind of acceptance of benign coercion under whatever reason is malevolence. Think of the lockdowns. You believed it was necessary (it was not and it was not because the unintended consequences have been a disaster by an order of magnitude. But we refuse to see the pain of others because we're myopically fearful. There's a lack of empathy for your fellow man that's palpable) and tolerated government encouraging people snitch on one another.

How do you think an authoritarian regime maintains its grip? By just being mean? It relies on a network of snitches who believe they're acting for the greater good.

The concept of the 'greater good' itself can be manipulated for misdeeds. 

There's no question the same line of thinking is taking root here. I'm seeing the word 'recalcitrant' being used more and more. It means:

"having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline."

So if you oppose masks on the grounds on the science being weak (and it is), you're uncooperative. I think now you should all reach back into your history books or novels about how such people can be treated by the benevolence of government. 

There's something disquietingly ominous now. The virus is capable of unleashing a more vicious virus. One that lurks within our soul always present: Fear.

Poke it right and it has the power to do unspeakable things in the name of security and nation.

Being recalcitrant may not just be good here.

It may preserve our sense of humanity.

*****

As we dick and fiddle around with masks, Sweden goes on with its life. So envious.

*****

Mother (government). Protect us from this virus. I kneel before you and await instructions.

Mother will mask you.

She will decide when it's safe come outside.

And when it's time to go inside.

Mother will design your destiny.

Her wings will be your liberty.

Just don't fly too high....

Mother will shoot you.

*****

The Wall of Masks. Together we march for nation! Repeat after us. Our lives are at stake. We dictate. Don't you dare respond. Blend into this wall. Be the brick Danny. It's temporary. Accept you fate Winston. 

We don't learn.

*****

*****

As many as 96 million Americans may have been infected. They models may prove right on that front but where they missed was with the deaths. Starting to get the feeling part of the hysteria is driven by public health officials and politicians covering their asses.

Sweden wins. 



*****

Remember how much they laughed at Trump when he said Obama was spying on him? It turned out to be true.

Remember when he wanted to shut down air travel from China and how they laughed at him calling him a racist while Democrats headed for Chinatown?

Remember when he said hydroxychloroquine may help and they laughed?

Remember when he suggested NY, NJ and CONN lockdown?

What a bunch of jokers!