Dear Stevo,
Just wanted to thank you again for your advice and encouragement regarding resistance to mandatory mask mandates.
I have an appointment with my vet this week. The vet clinic has a “mandatory” mask requirement, with which I do not intend to comply.
So I emailed the clinic an inquiry this weekend, and not having gotten a reply yet, I called and stated my concerns about not being able to wear a mask safely, as you suggested in several of your LRC articles: here, here, here, here, and here . The person to whom I spoke was most friendly and solicitous.
Turns out the “mandatory” mask policy refers to the parking lot, since the clinic is not allowing pet owners inside, mask or not.
Or in other words, the mask policy is essentially meaningless. Strike a blow for freedom, because every act of resistance makes it a little easier to assert our rights both for ourselves and for others who wish to live as free people.
Thanks again. Liberty!
-John S.
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Words in English have so lost their meaning. This can be seen all around. One example is among young people — not yet having been entirely acculturated to the absolute lies of the empire that is American civilization and its outposts around the world. They find themselves in disbelief at how little the English language is useful at communicating the simplest ideas honestly and clearly.
Consequently, because of this devaluation of the effectiveness of words, there is an “inflation” that takes place among young people who are just trying to highlight important topics by saying the equivalent of “Hey, pay attention to this!”
What was once able to be stated as “Mercury is toxic,” now needs to be stated more often as “Mercury is really very toxic,” or increasingly “Mercury can literally kill you, like literally.”
The word toxic has lost some meaning. The imperatives of the language have lost meaning. The verbal exclamation points of the language have lost meaning. The word “literally” gets overused as well, at times even being misapplied. In its use, you can make fun of a young person, or you can see a fellow slave on this awful anti-thought plantation on which we exist, holding up the once honed and sharp English language and wondering why the darn dull thing can’t be very easily used to communicate.
Hemingway tried to strip the language of artifice and to use it to communicate clearly. He won a Nobel Prize in literature for this, but he failed to use language to think clearly. His life was punctuated with romance for the evil of socialism. Had he surrounded himself with a better crowd and better ideas, with his finely honed writing: how he could have soared as a timeless literary intellectual, but his philosophical foundation was so erroneous.
George Carlin called on people to end this linguistic inflationary madness in their own lives, saying that too many words were being used to communicate, simple, clear ideas and that the use of too many words to express a concept was not expressive at all, but undermines communication and is just another example of hiding the truth.
“People use extra words to make things sound more important than they really are,” said Carlin in one appearance.
In another talk about the misery caused by using euphemism to dull the language Carlin said “I bet you, if we’d have still been calling it shell shock, some of them Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. But it didn’t happen, and one of the reasons is because we were using that soft language, that language that takes the life out of life. And it is a function of time, it does keep getting worse.”
Word inflation is all around us in the English language and words have lost so much of their meaning. I have a suggestion on how to navigate some of this.
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Examples Of Word Inflation And Effective Ways To React
As a diligent student of the contemporary face mask orders, it is my strong recommendation that every reader of a compliance order view the word “mandatory” when spoken by a bureaucrat or functionary as “recommended.”
The phrase “Absolutely no exceptions!” means “Mask are advised, talk with us if that’s a problem.”
“You will be fined if you don’t comply!!!” means “We’d really like you to wear your mask, but we probably have no legal authority nor the will to fine you, especially if you claim any of the eight different exemptions to this policy, but we’d just like to express to you, and mainly to our insurance company, how incredibly serious we are about this policy, like literally.”
The sentence “You will literally kill people if you don’t wear a mask!” is similarly a demonstration of this word inflation, but it is also a cautionary message that is different from the others. It should be read as “We believe the crazy fake news, and we are unhinged. The media is more trusted than science. Perception is more important than fact. As such, we are more dangerous and destructive to society than Covid itself.” It’s my recommendation that you not interact with anyone posting such a sign, until they’ve had a long sober vacation from the media cycle and an opportunity to calm down after the 2020 elections. Timeless wisdom is applicable here: Beware. You never know what could happen when you walk through the front door of a person, who is like, really, pretty, basically crazy.
“Absolutely no exceptions!” means “We have a lot of exemptions.”
“Absolutely no exceptions!” alongside threatening, flashy, original graphics means “We have a lot of exemptions, and we also have too big of a work force with too much time on their hands at all levels of the company, not just the forty-nine-person graphic design team that made this sign, and consequently you can expect both our third and fourth quarter earnings reports to be woefully out of touch with the earnings estimates of the street. Buy puts on our stock now.”
“You must wear a mask in this store!” means “If you walk in this store twenty times without a mask, you might get called out about it three times, and we aren’t even sure if our employees will even have the courage, interest, or stamina to do that even three out of twenty times, so we posted this strongly worded sign in hopes that it would deter you, even though we know that it probably won’t deter you at all, but it may deter some people, according to a focus group conducted by a marketing consulting firm that our industry trade group Head of Communications hired to give her twenty-six-year-old, out-of-work niece something to do during the economic downturn caused by the entirely overblown governmental corona response, so our general counsel’s assistant decided to post this sign at the front door of every single one of our chains based on a Friday afternoon statement from our monetarily distracted general counsel in passing, in which she said with a very distracted and disinterested shrug three minutes before going out of town for a long weekend ‘I don’t know, I guess it can’t hurt’. This was interpreted by her assistant as ‘Immediately print this and post it at all entrances of all 1,048 locations nationally. ASAP. PDQ. Like, now!’”
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Yes. These signs mean all kinds of things, but in the context of a time and place where “literally” doesn’t actually mean “literally,” the signs shouldn’t be taken so seriously and should never ever, under any circumstance, be read literally.
Don’t Take Face Mask Orders Too Seriously
All that is to say, “Don’t take face mask ‘orders’ too seriously.” Face mask orders are guidelines at best. In almost every situation, with all but the most rabid ideologues, you will get your exemption honored.
The problem with a rabid ideologue is that they believe their own hokum. Anyone who believes the hokum and falls for the narrative is doing themselves a serious disfavor.
Just look to the pragmatic out there if you want to see how not serious these face mask orders are.
You see, some savvy people are using Covid to take an extended vacation for themselves. They are happily letting the world fall for it all. Don’t expect them to protest.
Other savvy people are using it for their political gain, like Joe Biden or Kamala Harris who have called for people to just wear their masks until Biden beats Trump. Don’t expect them to protest face mask orders. Domestic disquiet is believed by pundits to helps voters usher in change. Some politicians wake up tickled upon hearing the news that yet another city burned overnight.
The vaccine manufacturers love the lockdowns because they can assure high vaccine compliance and low herd immunity rates by the time a vaccine becomes available. Don’t expect them to protest face mask rules.
I’ve identified about two dozen other groups in society who like face masks: ranging from 1.) the media, who desperately seek sensationalism to boost viewership numbers, to 2.) the dishonest, who feel more comfortable lying with a covered face to 3.) the ugly, who, let’s face it, look a lot better in a veiled face, to 4.) the dramatic, who like something to get worked up about.
You can’t expect members of any of these special interest groups to offer opposition to face mask orders. There are so many others too. They are riding the wave and will be ready to ride the next way. No fuss. They see right through the hokum, but are happy to let things continue as is. Best to keep away from the person worked up.
How To Invoke A Face Mask Exemption At The Veterinarian
Just like any other situation in which someone is claiming authority over you, a face mask requirement at the veterinarian can be handled like this.
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1.) Familiarize yourself with the face mask order. This can be done as simply as stating one sentence to a manager over the phone — “I see you have a face mask requirement” — followed by a period of listening to their response.
2.) Educate yourself about the exemptions. This can be done with a quick sentence — “Do you have any exemptions to this requirement?” — followed by quietly listening to the response.
3.) If required, cite your reason for needing an exemption. A good, clear, concise sentence to use is “I am unable to wear a face mask safely.” This can be followed by a period of listening. There’s really no need to get more in depth than that.
4.) Confirm the details of the conversation. You can make sure you understood everything clearly and that everyone is in agreement on how to proceed, with a statement like this “Okay, so I can just come to your front door at 2 p.m. today and mention your name at the door, along with this conversation, and there should be no problem, is that right?”
This same process can be done for goggle requirements, face shield requirements, temperature testing, and all manner of other invasions that you may have a valid exemption to. Many millions are exempt, but rather than invoking their exemptions are struggling through the suffering of the dehumanizing process. As they quietly struggle they are told “You are evil if you even think about not wearing a mask.” Really?
A one-size-fits-all, heavy-handed medical approach for all people regardless of impact is the real evil. And I beg you to fight it, do it for yourself, because if you don’t take a stand, it won’t end here.
The Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, on August 14, 2020, ordered the wearing of dog cones by restaurant servers as part of her “COVID19 Prevention Checklist Industry Guidance.” The person who has successfully fought the face mask and learned how to say no, will likewise be ready to take on this Twilight-Zone-like challenge. Those who don’t, are assured to see how very twisted the minds of their unchecked elected officials are.
If you have a valid exemption, I encourage you to follow this simple process at the veterinarian or anywhere else to boldly put an end to this tyranny in your own life. You deserve better than to allow yourself to be cowed into harming yourself. You’d never allow such low standards of self-care for a loved one. Why would you allow those low standards for yourself?
Send me your stories from the face mask compliance checkpoint, and help me put an end to this tyranny.
