Masks and Tattoos
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I believe I will one day look Jesus in the face (and have to account for myself. Since most of the Christian religion boils down to how one esteems and treats his fellow beings - the second greatest commandment being to "love thy neighbor as thy self" - I try every day to follow Jesus's advice:
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged." - Matthew 7:1-2
Still, as the civilized world decays steadily all around me, I have to confess, imperfect creature that I am, this is becoming increasingly difficult for me. It is a simple and undeniable fact that the way people choose to present themselves says a great deal, if not a totality, about the intellectual, moral and spiritual stuff they are made of, what they think of themselves, what they think of others and what they want others to think of them - all subtly manifest in the portrait each of us paints of ourselves and puts on display daily before the world.
Accordingly, how am I to assess the intellectual, moral and spiritual substance of someone who not only chooses to present himself in a certain way today, but has clearly made a decision to maintain that public image pretty much as long as he lives? As the little quip has it, "The difference between true love and a tattoo? A tattoo really is forever."
As the old saying goes, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."
Notwithstanding Jesus's admonition, response to the presentations people make of themselves is, I believe, automatic and unavoidable, as almost certainly was yours when you saw the above image.
Now for the real confession. Though the issue is far more subtle, I find myself facing the same inner dilemma regarding those who - after all that has transpired since the beginning of The Great Covid Pandemic/Covid Vaccine Swindle, after all the information that has become available, and indeed was available from the start - are still going around wearing face masks, cringing away from their fellow human beings.
Simply stated, the common everyday face coverings people typically wear are useless - not effective in preventing the passage of viruses either out through or in through such masks. Viruses are many times smaller and pass easily through the smallest openings in commonly worn face masks. Viruses in and out, no problem. So why do people continue to wear them, and what does their face mask wearing reveal about the intellectual, moral and spiritual substance of the wearers?
Forgive me, Jesus, but here are a few inexorable conclusions, not necessarily in order of importance, that I think can, and for a number of critical reasons, really should be made about such people. First, if they really do believe your common everyday face mask works, they are IGNORANT - ignorant of the facts, ignorant in the face (no pun intended) of readily available information (see Jefferson quote on ignorance and freedom). Second, they are GULLIBLE, having uncritically believed what they have been told by those they consider to be "experts". Third, they live in FEAR of their fellow human beings. Fourth, they are willing to be arbitrarily, dictatorially CONTROLLED by others they consider better and smarter than themselves, those "in authority". Fifth, and perhaps most critically, in their ignorance, gullibility, fear and easy controllability, they have been passively herded like dumb animals, been willing to give up their most basic God-given liberties - and I believe showing your face to your fellow human beings is one of those liberties - and have become, in effect, useful idiots supporting the cause of TYRANNY - the cause - power and money - that has been the lying and deceitful driver of The Great Covid Pandemic/Covid Vaccine Swindle from the beginning and seeks the overthrow of all nations, including our great American constitutional republic .
Finally, hopefully, perhaps the answer to my personal dilemma is not to be found in how I react viscerally to and automatically assess the presentations people make of themselves, but in HOW I ACTUALLY TREAT THEM. Perhaps, notwithstanding my initial and by definition superficial negative assessments of some, if I nevertheless manage to treat them as I myself would like to be treated, I won't get Jesus mad at me.
Does that get me off the hook?
Torquemada
p.s. In all fairness, as a footnote, it has to be pointed out that there are circumstances where people, who might otherwise not choose to do so, are simply forced to wear masks, such as in air travel or in places or jurisdictions where mask wearing is mandatory. These people get a pass.
The Mask Problem - eugyppius: a plague chronicle (hat tip Steve Taylor)
The Mask Problem
Before 2020, nobody even thought they’d be effective against viruses, two years later we have even more evidence that they don’t work, and yet public health authorities won’t stop promoting them.
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now.
Perhaps there is hope, even for Germany: Nine days into the lifting of the general indoor mask requirement, a marked shift in habits is underway. Fewer and fewer are bothering with useless plastic face-diapers.
As I carry out my semi-regular supermarket surveys, though, I’ve begun pondering all over again the whole problem of masks, and why we ever started wearing them, and what it all means.
The story is bizarre:
Everyone will remember that Corona astrologers and public health authorities, from Anthony Fauci to Christian Drosten, advised against masks early on. They pointed to longstanding public-health guidelines against community masking, which they claimed was powerless against viral infection. Then, beginning in April 2020, these very same people started singing a different tune. They had only played down the utility of masks to preserve their availability for healthcare personnel, they said. In fact everybody should wear masks; they would prevent infections, perhaps even make lockdowns unnecessary.
They proceeded to impose mask mandates upon the better part of the world. Lungs everywhere filled with new microplastics, oceans accumulated a new kind of trash, all of it to no effect whatever. Older public health doctrine against masking, it turns out, was totally right. Mandates plainly have no effect on infection curves. This is because SARS-2 is primarily transmitted by aerosols; it works like a gas that fills indoor spaces. Only N95 or FFP2 respirators have any chance of stopping the inhalation of these microscopic particles, but the discipline required to fit and seal a respirator properly is both inconsistent with the low quality of commonly available models, and incompatible with use outside of a controlled hospital environment. Thus, even respirators are totally worthless.
I am open to theories as to how our pointless mask obsessions ever came to be. Right now I have three ideas, which aren’t mutually exclusive and probably all apply to varying degrees:
Copying Asia: Corona was less virulent in the Asia-Pacific region, where masks are more common. A big part of how we got lockdowns and the rest of containment, was a bunch of people assuming that Asia was doing it right and that we needed to copy them.
Making Corona Visible: Consciously or unconsciously (probably both), public health authorities wanted a means of making the pandemic real and tangible to the masses. Pervasive disease statistics were part of this, hand sanitiser and distancing rules another part, masks yet another part.
Maintaining Useful Fictions: A lot of people came out of the first-wave propaganda campaign believing that SARS-2 had a 10% fatality rate and was likely to kill their kids. How could such an enormous threat be reconciled with the decision of authorities to insist on ordinary routine supermarket shopping, to end closures after April, or to weigh the problem of reopening schools? Rather than admit the danger of the virus had been wildly over-hyped, they claimed to have a charm that would magically save its wearers.