Recently where I live, a lawsuit brought by hundreds of parents against the governor’s policy of requiring children to be masked and teachers to submit to vaccination or testing won a temporary restraining order. Masking is now “optional”, despite all health authorities stating that it is vital to remain masked, especially for the case of higher risk environments, such as daycares and schools. I have children at both public and private schools, and I’ve written in a previous post about the private school’s folly and cavalier nature with which they have treated all things COVID-19 related. Despite being 2 years into the pandemic, I’m still utterly surprised by the level of vitriol that plague enthusiasts (PE) exhibit to all things mask related, and that’s leaving out the same toward basically any other type of mitigation, be it vaccinations, quarantines, or testing. If the consequences of the PE’s stubbornness didn’t actually impact the lives of others, their antics might actually be humorous. It is amusing that after 2 years of the pandemic, PE’s haven’t really been able to get on the same page as to why they hate masks so much. It’s amusing in the sense that it shows how foolish they are at heart, and the nature of their disagreement. Everything that they attempt to come up with is a thin pretext, a flimsy excuse, meant to cover the absolute stupidity of the core issue for them, which is this: they just don’t like the masks and just don’t like being told that they have to do it. That’s really all it is, sad to say. This makes the tragedy all the worse; the consequences of their obstinacy have real life and death effects on people’s lives, and it’s all due to “preferences”. They don’t want to wear a mask, and they realize how asinine the naked protest would be on it’s own; so they take to inventing reasons for not wearing it. This is where I find the humor; seeing the idiocy of millions of obstinate people, ashamed of the real reason for not wanting to wear masks, generating what they think are acceptable, intelligent, or at least socially passable reasons for being a selfish wretch of a person. Here are some examples of things I’ve heard in the past 2 years in no particular order:
- They don’t want to breathe their own carbon monoxide[sic].
- The mask is dirty and exposes them to filthy bacteria and germs (from their own body, ostensibly).
- They feel like they might pass out and or feel like they can’t breathe
- They can’t sing/speak with it on.
- They don’t want to be controlled
- Don’t want to wear a face diaper.
- God didn’t intend for us to cover our faces since we were made in His image.
- Wearing a mask is bad for child development and emotional health.
- It’s a personal choice for me and my family
- It’s up to my level of comfort – you do you, and i’ll do me
These are some of the more common ones which I would imagine that most people are familiar with, and I’m sure there are plenty more which I’ve not heard. The point is that no one can get their story straight — and it is delicious! I just wish they could also appreciate the humor in this, and so that is partly my motivation for this post.
The other reason for this post is to speak to the other erroneous pretext that gets a lot more agreement from the PE crowd, and this is the subject of choice. It’s been a rally cry from almost the beginning of the pandemic. There is an idea, which is largely implied, that people just want the option to choose what to do, and that at the same time, we must trust that they will make the most responsible decision. It’s as if they are saying, “Just give us the chance to do what is right, and we will do it”. With the recent lessening of COVID-19 restrictions, and in my case, schools being forced into this situation of allowing “choice”, we can now see exactly how these people will act. And it’s really no surprise to anyone that their choice is to not wear a mask. I’d like to elaborate on two points based on this observation:
1) It’s about compassion, not choice
2) PE’s loss of all health related credibility
It’s about compassion, not choice. From the beginning of the pandemic until now, it’s always been about compassion. Compassion in the sense of looking out for others, especially for those more vulnerable than ourselves. It’s been about realizing the interconnectedness of our country, not to mention our world – but let’s keep it simple and focus on our country. The idea was that we could work together, to get through this once in a lifetime pandemic. Each person had the opportunity and power to keep the virus from spreading from themselves to another. The ripple effects of all of us doing this could be so powerful. We could protect the most vulnerable from an untimely death, we could keep hospitals and ICU beds available – not only for COVID-19 patients, but for all the countless others who typically need access to hospitals for all the other reasons that are always in play. We might use our knowledge and technology to possibly end a pandemic, or at least get through it with a minimal loss of life. The desire for others to live, to have access to hospitals, to not be overworked at those hospitals, to be able to be in person for school is rooted in compassion. And that ethereal trait, compassion, was able to be demonstrated in a very real and practical way; wearing a mask, and keeping your distance. It’s so simple it’s almost ridiculous, but it is also such an incredible opportunity to show solidarity with our fellow citizens and to show that we care about them enough to take simple and practical measures to keep them safe. I don’t know that we will ever be presented with another opportunity to be able to show so many people that we don’t know that we care about them. When a PE says that they want the choice to wear a mask, it’s a pretext for their desire to not be inconvenienced to wear a mask, and so they try to take on the air of enlightenment, giving the rest of us “permission” to wear the mask if we so choose. Because it’s a facade, and not really at all interested in making sense, I waste my time trying to reason them out of their position – they didn’t come to their position using reason, so reason certainly won’t get them out of it. I also waste my time if I try to explain that masking is most effective if everyone does it, as it has a great deal more to do with you keeping the virus to yourself than it does to protecting me from getting it. But combining those different layers, you wearing yours, me wearing mine, is additive; together they give us all a better chance of slowing the spread. Trying to point them at scientific sources of information is also a waste for the same reason; that, and many of the PE crowd tend to prefer their info from 5 word memes on social media platforms, and asinine sound bites from politicians who see this as an opportunity to ride rage waves to their next term in office. A favorite refrain of these people when it comes to masks is “Well you do whatever your family is comfortable with and we’ll do whatever our is”. I’ve heard this from people who claim to be Christians, which is particularly disappointing; and even more disappointing is that it has been from Christians who one might consider mature or strong in the faith. For me the pandemic has shown how little wisdom and love there is in certain mainstream groups of Christians.
The loss of all credibility
One stark memory that will stay with me is just a few months into the pandemic, how there were certain states that had minimal to almost no COVID-19 precautions in place. They seemed to take pride in the fact that the virus wasn’t an issue there, and they acted and spoke as if because of that, they didn’t need to do anything or take any precautions. Beyond their disregard for the obvious fact that COVID-19 would be upon them imminently, they shared one other common trait: their governors were Republicans. I, at the time, was Republican as well. The news reports of the group of governors basically acting like fools was embarrassing to me; I really couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t understand what was wrong with them; I still don’t know. But it marked an important period; the rise of the Plague Enthusiasts. From that time on, the denial of COVID-19, its severity, danger, etc seemed to spread, faster than the virus could. People started creating and employing the aforementioned pretexts for why they shouldn’t have to wear masks, throwing tantrums when asked to put them on, and trying to equate their crusade of not having to wear a mask to all sorts of things that it shouldn’t be equated to (like the holocaust, communism, war for independence). The anger that parents of school children have shown about mask mandates has never made sense. The equation of anger with regard to the minor inconvenience of a mask does not balance with how overblown it has become in some circles. Even at my own school, a Christian principal couldn’t even bring himself to recommend vaccination to students and their families, trying to pass off his apathy using the misguided “both sides have equal points” reasoning. On a separate but related track, PE’ dealt in misinformation tropes about vaccines, conspiracies, and accusations about how the pandemic was being overhyped to make former President Trump look bad. (And yet, now that Trump is gone, those of us who took the pandemic seriously then still take it seriously) There’s a lot more that could be said on the tidal wave of misinformation that PE’s dealt in and amplified – and it would be good to learn about if you are not familiar with it. My point here is to remind us how from the outset, PE’s overarching goal was to oppose anything related to fighting or slowing the spread of the virus. Whether it was misinformation about the virus, vaccines, infection or death rates, or masks – nothing was safe from their collective surplus of ignorance and rage. From the time when we knew little, to now when we know so much more about the virus – the PE’s have shown intellectual immunity to the science surrounding it the entire time. What they’ve effectively shown is that they are unwilling to be informed by anything if they believe it might require the slightest inconvenience to them. It’s clear they picked their preferred outcome (believing there is not a pandemic) by disregarding all evidence – which is fine, to each their own. But because they’ve eschewed science and what it’s learned about pandemics in the last few hundred years, they have relinquished any rights to set public policy for it or to have their voice taken seriously. And what I mean by that is that as long as they choose to live in a fictional reality, they also lay down their claim to have a seat at the table with those of us who choose to live in reality. Nothing that they scream and yell about at a school board meeting needs to be taken seriously. What they post online, or yell at their representatives matters; they are living in a fantasy, and their ideas and thoughts on the pandemic are therefore untrustworthy. There are not “both sides” here; while there is room for debate about mitigation of COVID-19, and especially when and how we exit the pandemic phase, it should happen amongst those who take the science seriously. When we are trying to decide whether we drop mandatory masking, of what use is the angry Dad or Mom who never thought a child should be masked in the first place? Or who likewise never understood why a vaccine mandate or passport could be a good idea? These people offer nothing to a good faith discussion because by definition, they have not shown an interest in participating in good faith. This also applies to the senators, representatives, and judges who have tapped into the rage for their own political gain – their use of their positions of power to fight and weaken public health mitigations is harmful and shameful. It’s harmful to people’s health, and it’s harmful to democratic institutions, because it validates people’s ignorant mindsets that they deserve to be heard when they spout nonsense. It’s shameful because rather than seeking to correct the ignorant perspectives of their constituents, they’ve decided instead to go along with it, with a selfish eye to the next election.
As we move into what will hopefully be the post pandemic phase, when it comes to the idea of “choice”, especially in schools, your choice is between greater and lesser harm. The potential harm that comes from not wearing the mask is great, especially when compared to minor harm of wearing the mask. Administrators of schools can still in many cases make masks required; this has 2 advantages: first, it offers blanket protection, and is a choice that chooses on the side of protecting others. Second, it reduces conflict – a blanket policy removes the conflicts that arise from those who are at different places of comfort with masking, and chooses the lowest common denominator. And no matter what an angry parent may tell you, the kids really are ok wearing a mask during school. Those who would espouse choice would have you believe that the choices are somehow equal, and try to convey how great an inconvenience it is for them to put on a mask. They operate in a blissful ignorance of the multitude of ways that their behavior can impact others, and they do so at the expense of compassion and degradation of their own humanity. I would hope that going forward, those who espouse freedom and choice would see that to exercise one’s freedom doesn’t necessitate that all actions be self-serving; often the better use of freedom is choosing to exercise it in service of another.
Merely Xtian 