Posted on 09/23/2020 6:33:24 AM PDT by SJackson
They know better than the experts they revered just months ago.
It’s nothing new for political religions to produce radicals that develop their own sects or cults. This time around, rigid devotion to enforcing mask compliance has produced runaway fanaticism based on nothing but blind faith that more mask-wearing is always better. Even the public health experts, whom these followers all promoted as great prophets just months ago, can’t tame their fervor.
That’s a problem, because a return to normalcy will require subduing radical factions that agitate for oppression. Restrictions such as mask mandates are like oxygen to followers of radical fundamentalist Covidianism — the abiding belief that only lockdowns, social distancing, and masks can deliver us from the deadly pandemic. The longer mandates stay in place and experts continue promoting mask use — “My mask protects you! Your mask protects me!” — the stronger and more widespread the extremism will grow, and the less influence experts will have over their behavior.
The evidence is abundant, but consider these three cases of radical Covidianism and how they trace back to an abandonment of the scientific standards necessary to maintain public health and a functioning society.
First, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order last week requiring all nonprofessional sports players to wear masks. Athletes, except for swimmers, must wear masks while “training for, practicing for, or competing in an organized sport” if they cannot “consistently maintain 6 feet of distance.” There are no age-specific exceptions in the requirement, so it appears Whitmer’s mask mandate for children five years old and over applies.
Not only does this order contradict guidance from so-called experts, who say that people exercising should not wear masks because sweat can clog the mask fibers and make breathing difficult as well as “promote the growth of microorganisms,” but it overwrites Whitmer’s own order specifying that masks do not have to be worn during exercise “when wearing a face covering would interfere with the activity.”
How football, basketball, tennis, soccer, lacrosse, and other sports that aren’t golf or bowling don’t qualify as exercise that a mask “would interfere with” is beyond rationality. The science of sweat droplets clogging up mask fibers doesn’t change if a person is exercising by himself or in a competitive setting, yet one can see in these orders the progression away from science and toward the fanatical desire to control people’s behavior, regardless of the danger. While Whitmer says masks allow sports to resume, her requirement will likely mean exactly the opposite, as playing creates a health risk instead of a health benefit.
Second, a WestJet flight was canceled last week because a 19-month-old could not keep her mask on, despite the fact that infants and toddlers simply aren’t spreading the virus. The father, Safwan Choudhry, called it “horrific and dehumanizing treatment.” You can see what appear to be WestJet crew members harassing the poor family here:
Earlier today my family endure the most horrific & dehumanizing treatment onboard @WestJet plane. My wife was threatening to be arrested & forcibly removed unless my daughters, 3 yrs & 19 months would wear a mask. While my 3yrs wore her mask, the 19 months old was hysterical. pic.twitter.com/MHnaTnKgCU
— Safwan Choudhry (@SafwanChoudhry) September 9, 2020
Transport Canada’s official guidance for travelers says explicitly, “The following people should not wear a mask … children under 2 years old.” Yet WestJest crew members, according to Choudhry, wrongly cited the guidance as requiring his infant to wear a mask. Official rules are apparently no hindrance to the mask crusaders, who will defend their universal masking standard to the point of canceling a flight.
Not to be outdone in anti-science zeal for total conformity, however, the third example is the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which has asked agency employees to wear masks while teleconferencing from home. Natural Resources Secretary Preston Cole said in a July 31 email that in order to set a “safety example” showing that employees “care about the safety and health of others,” they should wear a mask while participating in virtual meetings “that involve being seen.”
The medical director of infection control at UW Health, Nasia Safdar, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that beyond protecting oneself from somebody else in the house with COVID-19, “there’s no reason to routinely wear a mask in your home if the risk isn’t there.”
This is what happens, however, when scientific standards are abandoned for political goals only loosely tied to public health: Pseudo-scientific fanaticism develops, and its followers are obsessed with gaining compliance, not saving lives. One can draw a straight line from the initial departure from scientific evidence on lockdowns to the current coronavirus extremism, which only increases in intensity as deaths and hospitalizations decline.
Lockdowns were once called an “unproven” hypothesis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its models of efficacy being invalidated by “empirical data.” The World Health Organization called forced isolation and quarantine “ineffective and impractical.” Yet despite the devastating effects of banning “nonessential” businesses and social activities, countries around the world locked down.
Groupthink on non-pharmaceutical interventions spurred an uncontrolled drift away from scientific justifications toward hasty generalized rules predicated on an “abundance of caution” and straight-up fear. Fear quickly turned into a tool for maintaining political power and an opportunity for self-righteous snitches to exercise control over their fellow countrymen. Snitch-level devotion to harsh government mandates devolved into a religion in its own right, and now we must suffer oppression not just from authorities, but from private companies and our fellow citizens.
One can draw numerous examples of Covidian jihad from any given week of these hellish past six months, but the progression is obvious. In April, a father was arrested for playing softball with his family in an open field in compliance with state orders. In July, a woman was berated by a fanatical old lady at the superstore for not masking her children, who are a risk approaching zero for spreading the virus.
Now heading into fall, some people are being asked to wear masks alone in their own homes, out in open parks, and while exercising. They’re supposed to strap them onto infants and toddlers, who are essentially at zero risk for spreading the Wuhan virus, and they aren’t ever supposed to complain about dental problems, headaches, or dizziness while mask-wearing — because every good COVID Karen knows masks are harmless.
This is our world in 2020. Ironically, not even the experts can keep pro-lockdown, pro-mask fanatics from harassing and endangering others. If you want to prevent this reality from becoming permanent, stand up to the bullies and stand firm on the science — including voting out politicians who’ve abandoned science and recalling those who aren’t up for re-election in November.
Georgi is a Senior Contributor at The Federalist, host of The 180 Cast, and coauthor of Clocking Out Early: The Ultimate Guide to Early Retirement.
Nonpharmaceutical Interventions for Pandemic Influenza, National and Community Measures
Tis the season for TOTALITARIAN PSYCHOPATHS to come out of the woodwork. See their FACES. Listen to their WORDS. Examine their DEEDS.
You’ll NEVER have “freedom” under their CONTROL. Your options will become more limited and more limited and on and on...until you are dead...which is where they want you.
I hear it’s airborne? Out of concern for protecting citizens...where’s our GOOGLES...er GOGGLES?
“I can’t breathe.”
George Floyd
Covidism is the new religion of the communist Left. “The Mask” is their symbol, and Fauxi is their supreme high priest.
If you hold your used mask in your hand, or drape it around your ear and let it swing around on things, or set it on your table as you eat, or put it in your pocket after wearing it, or drop it down tightly around your chin, you are spreading everything that you were claiming to have controlled by wearing a mask.
Its become totally psychological now. Had a young millennial practically crawl through the shelving in the grocery store aisle to pass me. The masks are here to stay. Forever.
I’m not surprised by the mask fanatics making these endless mandates. I’m shocked by the percentage of stupid sheep which follow them compliantly.
[[[If you hold your used mask in your hand, or drape it around your ear and let it swing around on things, or set it on your table as you eat, or put it in your pocket after wearing it, or drop it down tightly around your chin, you are spreading everything that you were claiming to have controlled by wearing a mask.]]]
My favorite is the “Nosers”. LOL They need to replace these things with pacifiers.
The time has come for people to throw the face masks away en masse. Time to stop this misery.
People are getting rich off mask production. DO YOU THINK THIS WILL EVER GO AWAY IF PEOPLE ARE MAKING MONEY?
No ARTIFICIAL long eyelashes ladies. Fluttering them could be use of a LETHAL WEAPON.
Because they're completely ineffective and because masks embolden scared-out-of-their-minds "men" and women, wearing masks helps spread the virus and contributes to widespread exposure and promotes development of natural immunity.
Bottom line: Although we can affect the shape of the infection curve (i.e., extend the timeline/x-axis substantially with all the totalitarian, immoral and arguably criminal actions taken deliberately by the governors and unelected bureaucrats), without an effective vaccine and widespread natural immunity developed through contact and infection which has occurred during every flu season in history, the area under the infection curve (i.e., the number of infections over time) does not, will not, can not change.
A cop in the next town over from me was outside directing traffic the other day when a Karen stopped her car and demanded he wear a mask. The officer ignored her so she came back again demanding he wear a mask. The office told her to move along. This infuriated Karen so she called the governor’s office to give the officer’s name and badge number. Of course the idiot governor called the police chief and now the officer is being investigated. The cop was outside and more than 6 feet away from people. I would have spit in Karen’s face but the officer handled it correctly. If Karen gets in my face over a mask she won’t like what happens next.
Leftists saw a great opportunity to train us to be good, compliant sheep the second this epidemic broke out. They lost no time in activating their inner fascist.
They don’t want to let go. Even as the incidence of infection plunged toward zero, they increased the restrictions.
The vaccine will be out, and the dems will be telling us that we STILL have to wear masks.
Crazier - hospitals that put face shields on newborns
Hospital puts face shields on newborns
https://www.fox5ny.com/news/hospital-puts-face-shields-on-newborns
Governments Will Impose New Covid-19 Lockdowns/Restrictions If They Think They Can Get Away with It!
This just sends chills up the back of my neck and made the hair on my arms stand up!
I have some African DNA, which meant that those ancestors were slaves. Any documentation shows that they and their descendants were Free Slaves by the 1700’s.
So, at one time some of my ancestors were slaves or indentured servants.
As per AG Barr* cited below, now my descendents of all races/ages are losing their freedom due to the illegal lockdowns
*In remarks Wednesday night at an event hosted by Hillsdale College, Barr called the lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American History” since slavery. 9/16/2020
“Its become totally psychological now.”
Speaking of...
https://www.healthline.com/health/baader-meinhof-phenomenon
Where’s Ruth Baader-Meinhof Ginsberg of the red-robed army?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction
The REVOLUTION never ends for her sickophats.
I played in a volleyball league last night.
9 of the 12 players wore masks.
2 guys and myself did not.
They were all in their 20’s too.
Bunch of p******.
GREAT images Gramps! Thanks. This is what men & women fought for? GREAT individuals DIED for this republic.
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