After an absurdly partisan letter from “public health professionals’” vilified “white protesters resisting stay-home orders” but defended rioters who “demonstrat[ed] in response to … racism,” we should laugh at anything this set babbles. And believe me, you will when you hear what “Surgeon General Jerome Adams” “wrote on Twitter” a few days ago:

“Some feel face coverings infringe on their freedom of choice– but if more wear them, we’ll have MORE freedom to go out. Face coverings [leads to] less asymptomatic viral spread [leads to] more places open, and sooner! … Exercise and promote your freedom by choosing to wear a face covering!”

Got that? By “choosing” to obey official ninnies, we bolster our liberty! Otherwise, they’ll send us back to our rooms like the children they deem us.

We might ignore ol’ Jerome’s bizarre conception of freedom if it were idiosyncratic. But too many of his victims define liberty as grotesquely as he does. No wonder we languish in a totalitarian dystopia. Admirable Evasions: Ho... Theodore Dalrymple Best Price: $12.26 Buy New $13.35 (as of 11:00 UTC - Details)

The science on masks is as far from settled as the coronavirus is from smallpox. One “expert,” wielding studies, swears masks will stop COVID19; the next, armed with conflicting research, insists they can’t and even endanger us. I suspect that like most medical measures, masks affect each person differently. They help some while hurting others; were we free, everyone would determine what’s best for his situation and health. But Our Rulers deny us even this bit of autonomy.

Ergo, wearing masks is now hopelessly politicized, obliterating our chances of ever learning the truth. “According to a poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Health Research, 76% of Democrats said they’re more likely to wear a mask in public compared with 59% of Republicans.” Predictably, “Public health experts and congressional Democrats have expressed frustration over Trump’s aversion to mask-wearing, while former Vice President Joe Biden — the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee — has embraced face coverings and called Trump an ‘absolute fool’ for belittling the preventive practice.” And “In Asia, masks aren’t just shields. They’re also symbols. They’re an affirmation of civic-mindedness and conscientiousness …” Oh, right, and they aren’t here? Biden proves that Western commies “virtue-signal” with them, too. And trust the New York Slimes to blither ever so pompously, “The mask is a public health device, but it has also revealed itself as a mask in the more traditional sense: a tool in a social ritual, a fetish object that signifies a person’s politics, gender expression and relationship to truth itself.” I have only a vague idea of what that means, thank God. But the Times’ contempt for those who refuse to play along is plain enough.

No matter. I long ago ceased caring whether masks protect me or anyone else: I will not wear one. Nor would I even if the facts staunchly supported their efficacy: whatever Leviathan orders, I do the opposite as far as possible. Lovers of liberty bristle at mandates, especially those pertaining to something as personal as wardrobe. And when a store, restaurant or church enforces the State’s diktat, I head elsewhere, preferably after explaining why.

Why am I so adamant? Because of what this “fetish object … signifies [about] a person’s politics.” Masks scream, “I’M A SLAVE WHO LOVES MY CHAINS! Kneel with me and lick up the Kool-Aid!” They advertise that the wearer watches too much TV, that he’s foolish and gullible. I’d as lief waltz about the streets in a Che Guevara T-shirt as a mask. Life at the Bottom: Th... Theodore Dalrymple Best Price: $4.57 Buy New $8.83 (as of 07:45 UTC - Details)

Whether masks help or hurt is irrelevant to Our Rulers: only our deference concerns them. They are determined that we will comply, however senseless or disastrous their commands. Which prompts us to question whether the early contradictions regarding masks were deliberate (Jerome “Obedience is Freedom” Adams announced in February, “Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!  They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”). Maybe such inconsistency wasn’t as incompetent as we thought; maybe it was conditioning the sheeple to acquiesce no matter what.

Or maybe it was just another whopper, as the Arch-Fiend Fauci confessed a few days ago: “…the public health community … were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply.” Once again, these insufferable busybodies lied, just as they did in their letter. Two strikes, and they’re out.

Nonetheless, politicians and bureaucrats aren’t likely to relent on masks, a ubiquitous and ostentatious emblem of their power over us. Indeed, the CDC continues justifying them. Then there’s this from “a primary-care professor at the University of Oxford”: “…the public will likely be wearing masks until ‘there are no new cases, or very few cases.’ Considering … the U.S. [has] surpass[ed] 2 million total cases, the country appears to still have a ways to go.” Is that chortling I hear from Leviathan? Our Culture, What&rsqu... Dalrymple, Theodore Best Price: $4.24 Buy New $12.83 (as of 04:12 UTC - Details)

The beast’s fervor for masks makes sense. But why do vast numbers of our countrymen embrace this expensive, uncomfortable, and inconvenient stratagem? Sure, a single mask may cost only a buck or two, but a month’s worth lightens your pocket by $30 that you could have better spent on groceries (especially if you’re newly unemployed: thank you, Rulers!). Multiply that three or four times for a family, and it’s a serious chunk of change.

I haven’t yet donned a mask, so I can’t speak to their comfort, but someone who knows admits they’re bothersome: “Whenever [Joseph] Santarpia [at the University of Nebraska Medical Center] sees someone wearing a mask in public, that person is constantly touching it …. ‘Masks are really uncomfortable, and no one wears them correctly,’ he said.”

Finally, I’ll bet a good many folks leave the house or car in the morning only to retrace their steps for the mask they forgot.

So what’s up? Why do so many Americans still sport these monstrosities? Perhaps because they revel in the thrill that coronavirus imparts to ho-hum lives. Suddenly, they’re living on the edge! Ordinary actions—shopping, working, dining in a restaurant, riding an elevator—offer a delicious frisson of risk. Masks enhance this delusion. And wearing one is an easy way to Save Humanity. No need to sacrifice yourself, your time or much money, either. Most people yearn to serve a Greater Cause. Christians do so by sharing the Gospel—and now, a weak, selfish and thoroughly indulged population can rescue the world with minimal effort. The Madness of Crowds:... Murray, Douglas Best Price: $15.44 Buy New $13.99 (as of 03:02 UTC - Details)

It’s essential, then, that we who love liberty eschew masks. Please God, we’ll hearten those who buck a trend only when they see others doing so. And bucking this one is imperative: “public health” departments are already plotting another lockdown this fall. I’m not sure whether these bureaucrats are inherently more dictatorial than average; I do know that as we value our life and liberty, we must abolish their fiefdoms.

But that’s a Herculean, even impossible, task. Ohio’s legislators tried merely to curtail the health department’s authority and failed, even with the state’s machinery at their fingertips.

So we’ll go the next best route and flout these despots’ decrees. Mock them, dispute them, deride them to family and friends. Neuter them every way you can, especially by rejecting masks (and if unconstitutional edicts require masks in your area, remember that nearly 90% of Americans are metabolically inflexible. Accordingly, this letter exempts those in poorer health from suffocating themselves).

Victor Hugo said, “Virtue has a veil, vice a mask.” How appropriate that Our Rulers push the latter!

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