Does not wearing a Covid mask make anyone a “truth warrior”?

(Spoiler alert: NO)

Masks are back in the news and I see the doom scrolling has reached escape velocity. So-called freedom activists are dedicated to prophesying more mandates, lockdowns, repression, etc. by this fall.

Let me first say, I share your strong feelings of disgust at the mere mention of masks. But I don’t see doom as inevitable and it’s certainly not something to speak into existence.

I also don’t view the topic of masks as being worthy of the attention it gets.

Mandating masks is both illogical and despotic — but it’s far from peak authoritarianism. We’ve been controlled, manipulated, and surveilled all day, every day, for a very long time.

Refusing to wear a mask is reasonable and symbolic — but is far from revolutionary.

Back in the early days of the “pandemic,” I recall many viral videos of people trying to enter a store without wearing a mask. For example, there was a man who filmed himself saying something like, “When I woke up this morning, it was still a free country.” 

I’ve written plenty about masks not working, vis-a-vis Covid-19, but perhaps I haven’t said enough about:

• This whole “free country” thing

• Viewing mask mandates as the gold standard litmus test of an independent mind

With all of this in mind, I offer a contemplation on mask formation.

Let’s say you’re about to drive to the local Walmart. You would step outside your house wearing clothes, I presume. Sure, when you woke up this morning, it was still a free country but you’d still opt to obey decrees about “public decency.”

Perhaps you notice that one of your cars needs an inspection or maybe a tail light is broken. Sovereignty aside, you choose the car that’s in full compliance with the related ordinances.

You get in, put on your seat belt (law obeyed), drive within the local speed limit (law obeyed), stay out of the carpool lane (law obeyed), and resist all those free-thinker urges to run red lights and/or drive on the sidewalk (laws obeyed).

In the store’s parking lot, the disability section is available but you obey that law, too, and select a spot much further away from the entrance. To soothe yourself after all this stifling conformity, you take a long drag from your vape pen — but opt to not smoke inside the store (law obeyed).

Regardless of which political party or Substack guru you prefer, you are willfully and silently adhering to non-stop restrictions on your liberty. But then it happens. Those audacious tyrants at Walmart push you too far. They infringe upon your right to go maskless upon entering their store. 

You take off your shoes before going through airport security.

You skip the beach when it’s closed due to riptides, pollution, or shark sightings.

You don’t let your kids smoke, drink, or skip school.

You don’t even dare roll your jam-packed shopping cart up to the 10-items-or-less counter.

But wearing a mask for a few minutes is where you film yourself drawing your red-white-and-blue line in the sand. (Never mind that Walmart is a private business and thus, not beholden to freedom of expression in the way most people imagine.)

And let’s be real: You weren’t gonna shoplift your purchases that day.

No need to challenge those pesky capitalist paying-for-things-in-order-to-stay-out-of-jail laws, right?

But you were NEVER gonna surrender your liberated soul to the dictates of a mask. 

Sure, you may lose this skirmish but not before you inform the totalitarian store clerk about the “free country” you woke up into this morning.

Each and every minute, 99.9 percent of us passively conform to societal norms, laws, and rules — whether we agree with them or not. Yet, we suddenly want a gold medal for going maskless. 

🏆🏆🏆🏆

Imagine if we consistently aimed that same level of tenacity (minus the ego) at taking specific, productive actions to make a genuine, sustainable difference.

Reminder: Honest dissent isn’t a contest between different groups of envious fringe characters.

It’s a transparent, evolving process that rejects groupthink, thought policing, negative ideation, and backstabbing — and replaces all of that with solidarity, humility, forgiveness, open-mindedness, and vision.

As soon as we recognize this and act accordingly, the Powers That Shouldn’t Be don’t stand a chance.

So yes, reject the mask deception but don’t fixate on it, elevate its importance, or deem it inevitable. Instead, allocate that energy/passion to discovering other methods and avenues to help create a better world.

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