What Is There Left to Say to a Masker?
I have one or ten things. But motivations matter...
Another flu season. Another round of people clamoring to #BringBackMasks
🤦♂️
We may do this for years to come.
To humans, reality doesn’t hold a candle to a good story. The real world outcomes of masking may be ludicrously ineffective. Even disastrous.
Ah, but the story.
The story is too tempting, too appealing, too easy.
“The air is made of death. But loop this little flag over your ears and you and your loved ones will be spared! Praise be.”
Of course, no one “took away” masks. No one is stopping anyone from self-muzzling. We still see people masking all the time.
We might be tempted to sneer contemptuously. In some cases, the contempt might even be justified.
But in some cases, I believe, we’re looking at torture and abuse victims.
Their wires have been snipped. They’ve been emotionally castrated.
Like an abuse victim, there are certain situations (fundamentally human situations, like being around other members of their species) in which they will never again feel comfortable and happy.
This does not make me want to sneer.
It makes me want to cry on their behalf.
It makes me want to find their torturers and visit my wrath upon them.
Any time a story maps badly onto reality, people suffer.
The victims (the menticided, as
calls them) have been trained into fear, abused into compliance.Imagine if every torture, spousal abuse, or child abuse victim walked around with a mark on their face.
With pandemic-abuse victims, we don’t have to imagine.
And what we’ve done to children...
We may never have a full accounting of the psychological damage. Many people will mask for the rest of their lives, living in fear of deathly contagion every time they step out their doors. (Or perhaps even inside their doors, as some PH officials would have it.)
So, what do you say to a masker, at this point?
Well, it depends.
Motivations matter.
Why are they still masking?
Here’s every motivation I can think of, and what I would say to each masker “type”.
1. Actual Fear
“Other humans are walking bags of contagion. My mask protects me.”
We all know people like this. The near constant barrage of fear propaganda wormed its way into their brains and set up residence there. They’ve been reprogrammed. They now believe the atmosphere inside their masks is “purified”, and the atmosphere outside their mask is made of death.
To these people I would say: I’m sorry. I’m sorry you’ve been through what you’ve been through. I’m sorry you were lied to.
I’m sorry many of us didn’t protest sooner and louder. Maybe you would have heard something that made sense, something within you would have clicked, and it never would have come to this.
I’m not going to tell you to stop masking. That’s your choice.
I also won’t express contempt for you. This was not your fault.
I’ll be waiting here, outside the Cave, when you wish to join me. When you decide this is all nonsense, and you realize your role as the abuse victim in this matter.
It will be hard, there will be emotional work to do, but we will move on.
The air is wonderful out here. So are the faces.
2. False Comfort
“It just makes me feel safer.”
Closely related to the fear victim in #1, but slightly different. These people have been affected by the fear messaging but instead of living in abject fear of “bad air” they simply get a sense of comfort from their mask.
It’s a talisman. A wubbie.
Some people wear crosses to ward off evil, some people carry lucky rabbit’s paws, or a pet rock.
And now some people wear masks in public.
Again, I don’t have any contempt for this person. They’ve been psychologically entrained to take their talisman along whenever they go somewhere.
To them I would say: Okay, do what you want.
But doesn’t some part of your mind wonder whether it’s really necessary? Doesn’t some part of your mind think that maybe you’ve been Pavlov’d into this behavior, or that it represents some bad wiring somewhere? Doesn’t some part of your mind remember a few years back where, if we saw someone covering their face and obsessively sanitizing their hands in public, we would feel sorry for such a person, and wonder how they got through life?
Remember when we saw hypochondria as a mental illness?
What if your child grew to be a teenager but still carried around a doll or a security blanket or some talisman from their childhood? Wouldn’t you talk to them about it?
Maybe it’s fine, but maybe it’s a sign something is off, and needs addressing. Just pay attention to those voices, that’s all I’m saying.
3. Normalization
“This is just what we do now when we go out out in public. It’s not a big deal. We don’t even think about it. It’s like putting on pants.”
To this person I would say: If someone suggested you go through the rest of your life wearing a clown wig, or skipping instead of walking, or beginning and ending every sentence with “BEEP-BEEP”, as in “BEEP-BEEP, very nice to meet you, Suzie, my name is Frank, BEEP-BEEP” would you question it?
I mean, none of those things are a big deal, right?
Because to many of us, this face-covering business is just as funny and nonsensical as those things.
Maybe even more so.
I would prefer the clown wigs. Just saying.
Also, does any of this seem “normal” to you?
Good grief.
4. Enjoyment
“I love wearing my mask!”
I know this is a hard one to fathom, especially if you’ve ever worn a mask for an entire work shift or an international flight.
But yes, some fraction of maskers out there seem to actually enjoy it. The costumery of it, the pageantry, playing pandemic dress-up theater.
It’s a fashion statement, or they find it an interesting way of “expressing” themselves. (Even though, hmm, isn’t “expressing” exactly the word for what we do with our faces?)
Also, I speculate that some people actually enjoy the anonymity, or the feeling of not having to show one’s face to the world, which they find too vulnerable or exposing.
To these people I would say almost the exact thing as in #3: Okay, fine. Express yourself through fashion. I really don’t care. Some people have tattoos and nose rings and purple emo hair that hides their face. I get it.
When I was a kid, I went through a (brief) phase where I thought a mullet and skinny jeans and studded gloves were the supreme pinnacle of high fashion. I thought it expressed who I was. And then I grew out of it. (Thank God.)
Just make sure you’re listening to the internal voices that are asking you whether it’s really enjoyment. Is it really expressing “you”, or is it filling some other need that you’re not addressing? (e.g., the need for attention or significance or love?)
Also know that some of us find your form of expression ridiculous.
More ridiculous even than a mullet.
5. Conformity
“Everyone else is doing it. I don’t want to stand out from the herd. I’m afraid of conflict or having to defend my stance. I don’t want to upset anyone. Go along to get along.”
Here, we start to access a little of my contempt.
Not a lot. There are worse people, and I’ll get to them.
But the go along to get along crowd, I believe, share a large responsibility for where we find ourselves now.
If most sane, thinking people accessed a little backbone and rejected utter nonsense, we would not be having this ridiculous conversation (still) about covering our faces with magic fabric.
If you saw someone being abused, would you go along with it? Because this is more-than-metaphorically what has happened to us.
Okay, so not everyone has backbone. They’re just trying to make it through the day in one piece and put food on the table. In their minds, other people can afford courage.
But I can’t help but wonder if prior generations (ones that had to go through real hardship) would ever have been so compliant. This level of tyranny and nonsense would not have stood a chance unless our modern minds and characters had become so weakened by the gods of Comfort and Safety and Security.
When times are good, people are not called on to be courageous. We lose the muscle for it.
But I believe that, like a muscle, courage gets stronger the more we use it.
6. Obedience
“I do what the authorities and experts tell me to do. They are smarter than me, and know best. They say cover my face, I cover my face.”
Okay, switch my contempt meter on.
This kind of deference to authority makes no sense to me, is contrary to my very being (hence the newsletter title), and is a straight-up recipe for societal disaster.
An authority does not know everything, and cannot tell every human what to do or think (despite their dreams to the contrary). You cannot get through a single day of your life without thinking for yourself, at least a little bit, on about a thousand issues.
None of us can.
There are not some special people blessed with special knowledge from on high who must inform the rest of us pleebs what the Truth is.
You would think we closed the book on that view of knowledge sometime around the invention of the printing press. But no, apparently turning off one’s mind in deference to authority is still all the rage.
The “experts” gave us utter crap like this:
Every day we discover some new blunder on the part of the authorities or experts, ranging on the scale somewhere between incompetence and outright villainy.
Authority must be questioned. For the sake of us all.
(Also if your vaunted expertise means you you can’t tell the difference between a poorly designed observational study and a randomized control trial, then it’s time to turn in your accreditation for a refund, because you are being out-experted by unaccredited amateurs and citizen journalists.)
There really isn’t much more to say to the feverishly obedient, other than maybe: why do have a squishy pinkish-grey organ that lives between your ears if you’re never supposed to use it?
7. Ignorance
“The science says it works. I value science, so I’ll do it until science says otherwise.”
I have one question for you: is it willful ignorance?
Because you’ve had ample time to brush up on 100+ studies (including proper RCTs) showing that masks have no effect on respiratory diseases. (And 60+ studies showing their harms - same link).
You’ve had ample time to look at real-world data showing the vast ineffectiveness of universal mask wearing. (And to notice that those same charts are indicators that masks might have made infection and sickness worse.)
You’ve had ample time to READ THE BOX.
You’ve had ample time to see videos of officials admitting the ineffectiveness of masks, but their value as a psychological tool (i.e., inducing terror in others so they stay away from you and a constant visual reminder to stay “cautious”, that is, to live in fear).
Even the CDC has quietly admitted that masking is not necessary, even in medical settings.
So, I’m asking you… please, please pull your head out of the sand.
If you truly have managed, somehow, to avoid this information (congratulations, you are some kind of truth-avoiding ninja) and the evidence of your own eyes and common sense, and you truly are operating in a cloud of scientific darkness, then perhaps don’t clamor for such information to be suppressed.
If you don’t want to be in the dark on these and a myriad other issues, maybe don’t cut off the hands of anyone reaching for a light switch.
8. Virtue Signalling
“I’m a good person. I care about others. I’m socially responsible. And I want you to know it, too.”
I know no such thing.
What I do know is that wearing symbols of illness and death on your face in order to strike terror into others is an act of abuse.
I don’t find abuse virtuous.
I find it sick.
I don’t think you know what real virtue is. Read Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. He talks about things like courage and honesty and self-mastery.
Real virtues are not acquired by displaying an outward symbol. They are the product of long years of practicing them and accumulating character.
And those who possess them don’t need to advertise it.
9. Political Badge/Tribe Affiliation
“My team wears masks, so I do, too. I’m proud to display my gang/cult colors.”
You are operating on the lizard brain level.
To paraphrase Einstein, you’ve been given a large brain by mistake, since for you, a spine alone would suffice.
Come to think of it, spine is being a little generous.
Belonging to a tribe or a gang or a team is easy. It’s a way of abdicating the responsibility of thinking for yourself to the group or to the group leader.
But when we value membership above truth, we become divorced from truth in a way that can only be destructive. We become capable of truly awful behavior towards anyone who is not in our tribe, since, in our minds, they are not human.
To split people into warring gangs over their face decoration, or lack thereof, is a monstrously childish and reptilian way to run a society.
But if your goal is to tear us all apart into hateful factions, good job.
10. Fearmongering/Continuing the Pandemic Theater/Perpetuating the lie that people must live in constant psychological terror
Welcome to the lowest rung of hell.
Here are the liars, the news media who perpetuate the lies, the government officials who want us to be obedient, docile automatons, the politicians who mask up to go on camera then remove their masks when (they think) the cameras have stopped rolling.
I’m not talking about the ones who believe in the magic face fabric, like in #7 above. I’m talking about the ones who know it’s all a crock of horse pucky, but want to put everyone through this dirty, cultish, slavish, agonizing charade anyway.
To them, I say this:
You are an abuser.
There is no other word for it.
I want you to imagine how an abuser feels when the enormity of what they’ve done hits them. When they realize the pain they’ve wrought. The joy of life that they’ve sucked from the people, whether it’s the people in their life, or from millions of anonymous strangers.
I can’t imagine the twisted contortions of logic you use to lie to yourself to avoid that guilt. Or maybe I don’t want to imagine it. You must live in a nightmare web of cruelty and self-deceit.
Or perhaps, like a common abuser, there’s a part of you that enjoys it.
Or, like a sociopath, you feel nothing.
After what you’ve done to people I love, the emotional scarring you’ve caused them, the torture you’ve put people through, what you’ve put children through, for gain, for power, for notoriety, for your “Reset”...
…frankly, I would not piss on you to put out a fire.
I’d like to think I was capable of compassion.
But honestly, if you were clinging on to the lowest rung of the ladder before dropping into the fiery lakes of Hell, I would probably stomp on your fucking fingers.
In short, unless you are re-grouting your bathroom tile, this is what mental illness looks like:
It has been inflicted on the population of the world through extended, legally-sanctioned mental abuse.
Some are the abuse victims. Some are the abusers.
The victims have earned my sorrow and sympathy.
The abusers have earned my contempt and wrath.
If you have a clearer way of seeing this, I’m all (loop-free) ears.
Further masky reading:
Buy James a ko-fi. I'm pretty sure it makes you a virtuous person.
Dear James. You have said it all beautifully, tragically and honestly here. There is nothing left to say.
What do I say to mask wearers?
NO.
Then I walk away.