A California reader writes:
Hey Allan,
In Whole Foods yesterday, I had my scarf mask below my nose. A Whole Foods worker asked if I would pull my mask over my nose. I said “No, I can’t breathe like that.”
He then said they have a sign telling me I’m supposed to wear a mask. I told him, I know I just can’t do it anymore.
He then told me we could have a happy medium. He asked if he could take my temperature and I could get rid of my mask. I told him sure!
I’m still OK covering my face somewhat so I don’t really freak everyone out. He took my temp and everything was cool.
The mask thing is coming to an end!!!
-Maskless in California
———
Your clarity is very important when communicating with another person.
Men Must Always Be Clear With Women
You should be very clear with women about your intentions. Certainly it is your right to play all the mind games you want, but it’s not a very decent thing to do to a person and if you do so, you deserve all of the fallout that comes from it and none of the sympathy. A great deal of harm is done by this lack of clarity.
The most common reason for a lack of clarity from man to woman is that the man does not know what he wants and has been raised without ever being expected to know such a thing. A secondary reason is a lack of integrity, an uncertainty and unwillingness to make your “yes” mean “yes” and your “no” mean “no.”
If you want the answer to a great deal of today’s marital problems, point the finger at the man for not leading. A lack of leadership leads to so many other problems in a relationship. Seldom is it actually the woman’s fault when you get down to it.
Be a man. Be clear. Lead. Stop being the wishy-washy guy society calls on you to be. Be the lion you were put on this earth to be.
Employees Must Always Be Clear With Employers
You should be very clear with a potential employer about what you want from them and what you are willing to give them in exchange.
I’ve never heard of an unhappy employment situation that had enough clear communication. With an employer and an employee, it’s almost impossible to align expectations too thoroughly.
Aligning expectations through clear communication of intentions is exactly how a thriving relationship is built.
It’s easy to blame the employer for this. Surely the employer is involved in things going wrong. But if you can do a good job at work that needs to be done, and can be the communicator who clearly draws out what that means, you will forever be in demand among employers.
If you are willing to lead in your own life, so many problems that plague so many others simply disappear from your life.
What Does This Have To Do With Face Masks?
When the face mask rules came along, quite naturally, lots of weak people called it “oppression.”
It’s good that they were aware enough of the concept of human decency to be able to identify a face mask as oppression. That is a huge point in their favor that allows them to stand head and shoulders above many others who had not put in the hard work through life to understand this most fundamental aspect of human liberty and human decency.
But true to their flip-flopping John-Kerry-esque nature of not standing for anything, many of my peers of the libertarian and conservative persuasion wore a mask DISOBEDIENTLY and complained when that lack of clarity caught up with them.
What Does It Mean To Wear A Mask Disobediently?
Pithy sayings, a cheese cloth mask, a silver lined mask, joke masks, masks around the forehead, masks worn with a protruding nose, masks worn around the chin — these are all examples of masks worn disobediently. Countless more examples exists.
Blow It In Or Blow It Out
There’s joy in clarity.
Are you not sure if your partner is the right one for you? Add some stress to the relationship, and you’ll quickly see things that would have taken much longer to see.
Not sure if your job is the right job for you? Add some stress to the relationship, and you’ll quickly see things that would have taken much longer to see.
Make a decision. Make a clear decision. Then communicate it clearly to others.
This is an admirable way for a man to go through life. What many people do instead with face masks is to make no decision, communicate unclearly by wearing a face mask, only disobediently doing so.
Don’t Play The Juvenile Game Of Wearing A Mask Disobediently
Don’t play the juvenile game of wearing a mask disobediently. Either you believe the narrative that a ten cent polypropylene mask from Wuhan saves grandma’s life, or you recognize that statement for the absolute malarkey that it is. Life and death matters are no joke. I can understand why people would get worked up at your disobedient wearing of a face mask: you are communicating that you agree with the gravity of the situation, but don’t care enough to wear it properly.
Shame on you for doing that. You mock the people who care when you do such a thing, rather than engaging them in a heartfelt way. How passive-aggressive of you. Shame on you as well for half-heartedly acquiescing to and spreading the oppressive lie that is the face mask.
Either it works or does not. Would you tell a lie to your boss to make him feel better? Would you tell a lie to your grandma to make her feel better? Would you tell a lie to your spouse to make her feel better?
If so, then you need to evaluate your character, because you are part of the problem. Saying that face masks help to stop the spread of a respiratory virus is a lie. To wear one is to perpetuate a lie. Saying the Covid shot is safe and effective is a lie. To take one is to perpetuate a lie. To say the PCR test is a useful diagnostic test is a lie. To take one is a lie.
STOP LYING!
If you don’t, and you realize it’s a lie, you are the problem.
Don’t blame other people. Blame you.
1.) Your Pithy Sayings On A Mask Are Not Interesting
I’ve heard all manner of funny things written on a face mask. Some people send me photos of their clever masks. Sayings on masks are funny. Pithy sayings on a mask that is worn on your face are not. There’s nothing you can write on a mask that makes you anything but either 1.) an imbecile for wearing one or 2.) a coward.
If you have a third alternative as to why you wear a mask, I’m all ears. I have yet to hear one.
2.) Your Bitcoin Mask Is As Uninteresting As It Gets
A man I know was trying to fit in with people who have been in the Bitcoin industry as long as I have, a group sometimes called “OGs.” To fit in, he put on a Bitcoin face mask for Zoom calls. Bitcoin is a technology developed to unlatch the claws of the most evil government entity — the central bank — from the flesh of the American people and people worldwide.
Bitcoin is the opposite of a face mask.
You miss something about the people who came to the industry early and stayed through thick and thin if you think it’s money rather than ideology that attracts them. That same courageous ideological life that got them into Bitcoin is the same life that has them staring at you like a virtue signaling coward for wearing a Bitcoin mask on a Zoom call, in a profile picture, or in any other scenario.
Cowardice masquerading as bravery is a common way cowards mock bravery.
YOU ARE WEARING A MASK. THE MASK IS A LIE. IT DOES NOT WORK. YOU ARE DEMONSTRATING FOR OTHERS THAT YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH OF A PROBLEM WITH MASKS TO NOT WEAR THEM. YOU ARE TELLING EVERYONE THAT YOU GIVE YOUR TACIT APPROVAL TO A LIE.
2.) Your Cheese Cloth Mask Is Not Interesting
3.) Your Silver Lined Mask Is Not Interesting
4.) Your Artistic Mask That Gets People To Look Twice Is Not Interesting
5.) Your Rhinestone Mask Is Not Interesting
6.) Your Mask Drooping Around Your Nose Is Not Interesting
None of this behavior is cute. It’s not only not cute, it’s very unclear. It’s furthermore unclear on the most important of topics: what it means to be a human, what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be an individual, what it means to lead, and what your volition means to you.
It’s really not cute.
Once again, if you engage in any of this unclear cutesy behavior you are making a choice on what you follow and deserve very little sympathy. YOU ARE WEARING A MASK. THE MASK IS A LIE. IT DOES NOT WORK. YOU ARE DEMONSTRATING FOR OTHERS THAT YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH OF A PROBLEM WITH MASKS TO NOT WEAR THEM. YOU ARE TELLING EVERYONE THAT YOU GIVE YOUR TACIT APPROVAL TO A LIE.
Stop wearing the mask. Figure out life entirely maskless. Thousands have written me who have done exactly that. Why can’t you also? Stop with being cute. Move on to being dangerous, dangerous to those who mean to enslave you and take from you all that you hold precious.
They are not playing around. Why are you?
Mask Nazis Are Bad
Some people think the mask is great. They think the mask helps people. Those people have not done their homework.
Economist Murray Rothbard commented on economics:
“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”
But this is applicable for all fields.
You have no business commenting vociferously on a thing you know nothing about.
Theologian Paul Hinlicky takes it even further and comments that one should be better versed on the opinion of an opponent before sharing one’s own opinion. This is the Hinlicky Rule.
“You shall not criticize the position of another…until you can state that position with such accuracy, completeness and sympathy, that the opponent himself declares, ‘Yes, I could not have said it better myself!‘ Then, and only then, may you criticize. For then you are engaging a real alternative and advancing a real argument. Otherwise you shed only heat, not light.”
Know-it-all mask nazis are really bad. I have no love for vocal ignorance, which may add some weight to the following sentence. Libertarian and conservatives who know better and subject themselves to the mask are far worse.
Libertarian Mask Wearers Are Worse Than The Mask Nazis
You get that the mask is bad. You get that you don’t want to be in a mask. You just need the right reason to be put into a mask.
You aren’t standing up for what you know to be true.
So much reading, so much discussion, so many lectures, so many resources went into preparing you for a time such as this, but for what? It was all mental masturbation.
With your very inaction you turn magnificent ideas into worthlessness.
Did Ludwig von Mises write Human Action, so you could sit idle all day and make uninspiring memes that get 43 likes, a detail that you will bemoan as so low because of censorship?
Did Ron Paul run for President, so you could sit idle and say “I wish we had better elected officials,” “Boy, I can’t wait until a better establishment Republican gets in office,” or the equally preposterous “Boy, I can’t wait until a Libertarian gets in office, that’s when life will really change.”
It’s not about them. They didn’t run for them. They didn’t write for them. They didn’t alter the trajectory of their lives for them.
They did it because that’s their calling. They did it to build on the work of others. They did it for others to build on their work. They did it for people like you to take their work and to apply guts to it. Your guts plus their work leads to amazing change.
There are people in our history who are pure guts. Pure chutzpah. Pure warriors.
They lived amazing lives by being so brave in their devotion to truth.
With each action we take, we choose to live in their shadows and take society on a bad path, or we choose to stand upon their shoulders and to march toward greatness.
In your cowardice, there will be no march toward greatness.
In your bravery, freedom is yours for the taking, if you will just rise to that occasion.
Stop wearing the mask. If you don’t know how, read Allan Stevo’s bestselling “Face Masks in One Lesson,” read his LewRockwell.com writings, and sign up for action alerts and videos on how to never wear a mask again at RealStevo.com. What it all comes down to though is demanding a higher standard for yourself as a person of courage and character, no matter what evil comes against you.
