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A Tiny Mask Rebellion
This evening, I discovered that I was out of yogurt, which is my favorite “soft food” for when I am recovering from a dental implant procedure (had it yesterday). So I got into my (fully paid-for) little SUV and drove down to my favorite grocery store to get some. I had just been reading @ryanm‘s post on “conservative friends”, and I decided that it was time to put my behavior where my sympathies lie. Our state has a universal “mask mandate” which requires all persons inside any business to wear a “face-covering” at all times. I just kept in mind that he and I live in the same state, and are subject to the same illegal and unconstitutional restrictions. He has been outspoken about his refusal to wear a mask anywhere. This time, I did not put on the mask that lives in my purse at all times. I walked into the store, got a basket, and bought the items that I was looking for. When I was done, I got into a checkout line. The cashier rang up my purchases, scanned my loyalty card, put my stuff in a bag, and I left. Not once during that entire time was I asked to put on my mask, not by a store employee or another customer (unusual, since our state has a lot of Karens). Boy, did that feel good! And every single other person in that store was masked. Every single one. I hope I can keep doing this, and maybe inspire others.
Published in Culture
One person at a time.
This is interesting:
https://lockdownsceptics.org/2021/04/14/weimar-court-prohibits-mask-wearing-distancing-measures-and-rapid-testing-at-schools/
Yes! Welcome to the revolution! I’ve found that even the places that have mask stations and gloved employees willing to furnish you don’t even blink when you smile and walk on by. In my opinion most of them hate the things and have no interest in forcing them on others.
Breathe, inspire, laugh and show them what a smile looks like again. Courage is contagious.
Can you get a t-shirt like that? I want one!
We make it through this and I’ll make one for you for Christmas.
Sweet!! We are guaranteed to make it through this because we are free people who do not live in fear.
Yes, very interesting…especially when one considers the historical significance of Weimar itself. perhaps this is a harbinger of things to come in Germany? (Yeah, probably not, but I can hope, can’t I?)
Yesterday on my regular convenience-store stop for caffeine on the way in to work, I noticed the guy behind the counter quickly fumbling with his mask when I walked in. It wouldn’t stay on. I was fumbling with my mask. It wouldn’t stay on. Finally, I said “I don’t want to wear mine either!” And both of us let them drop. “I already had it,” I said. “So did I” he said. So now when I stop in for my morning caffeine, neither of us bother with the mandated ritual.
I think we’re also going to start seeing a lot more articles like this one.
I kind of wish Trump would have come out in favor of masks early on, so that they would now be banned…
https://www.aier.org/article/medical-journal-warns-about-maskss-potentially-devastating-consequences/
And yet another:
https://www.city-journal.org/do-we-need-mask-mandates
Can you do one on a button down Oxford shirt? Thanks.
Two guys came to work on my air conditioners and the company had said I should wear a mask in my house while they’re there. I said I would keep my 6-foot distance.
When the guys came I said that I’d probably had covid and had had the vaccine twice, and that they didn’t have to wear masks in the house. But they said they would anyway.
But to be nice, as they worked and I read, I held a mask in my hand like a fop waving a hankie at my nose when they walked by.
Later when they were done, and in their truck readying the bill, I went out to ask a question and one of the guys started fumbling to put his mask on. All I said was, “So you don’t wear one either!” I laughed. They didn’t.
We’ve had a couple different people over to do remodeling in our house recently. Neither wore masks. Neither did we. Nobody cared. It was great!
I’m going out for a drink with my best girlfriend this afternoon. I will not be wearing a mask to walk the 50 feet from the entrance to the bar where she will be waiting.
I had a leg vein issue recently and had to see a specialist. They gave me a mask on the initial consult and I put it over my chin for that appointment. After that I said, “No thanks,” every time I checked in for appointments. I had two sonograms, a lengthy outpatient procedure, and two follow-ups and never wore a mask for any of it. The nurses and doctors never mentioned it once on any of the appointments and were totally friendly, probably because they understand the ADA and patient autonomy better than the Karens behind the desk.
It was the same thing when three of my kids had eye exams – front desk people were all sticky about it, the doctors and technicians couldn’t care less (or if they did, maybe they knew better than to push it). All it takes is for us to stand up for our rights (and we have legal rights) and challenge this stuff. Just say no and force them into a position of violating your freedoms, especially with medical offices who know better, even if their administrative masters are telling them otherwise.
Got my second vaccine dose today. My policy is (a) if there is no sign I will not don a mask entering the store (the pharmacy where I got the shot today did not have the sign and no one gave the maskless Mrs Rodin and me any grief), (b) I do not wear a mask outside for any reason (although it might be helpful with pollen), (c) I will not put on a mask to walk 50’ to a restaurant seat or when exiting, and (d) even in a business that does display a sign I will not don (and will remove) a mask if I see any other customer or staff without one.
Baby steps.
When I was visiting my parents in Indiana in July, the repairmen came to fix the plumbing. No masks. They weren’t even wearing them at the door- no conversation about it, nothing. After Chicago where at that point many were wearing masks + gloves + shields, it felt like being on another planet.
Yes, I have has several workmen at my house over the past few months. No masks. One man came wearing a mask and gratefully removed it when I told him that it was OK with me if he did so. We have no state mandate in Tennessee, it is mostly up to businesses to require it. Some counties (not mine) have had mandates for part of the time. One county nearby voted to strip the unelected health officials their rule making powers.
I came. I saw (the mask mandate sign). I ignored. Walked right into the restaurant, turned right to the bar, and sat down and waited for my girlfriend to show up. No one said anything. Everyone else who came into the bar or restaurant was wearing a mask. My friend was wearing a mask when she walked in. The people of the state of Washington are nothing, if not obedient. Our table was near a window, and about 50% of the people walking down the sidewalk were masked.
Another day with no mask.
Since having a state name like “Washington” is racist they will be in the hunt for a replacement. Maybe “North Sheepleland”. “Airstrip One” would be a bit on the nose.
I put on my mask, per the sign on the door, as I entered a hardware store in a little town in west central Minnesota. A guy who worked there helped me find some roofing nails, then I wandered around a bit and another lady asked if she could help – told her I was just trying to remind myself of any projects that needed doing. About ten minutes later I wandered up to the checkout. Finally looked up – no mask on the lady, no mask on the guy who helped me earlier, no mask on any of the customers at the counter. I said “how come I’m the only idiot wearing one of these?” Might as well have been wearing a sign: “I’m from the cities.”
The problem is I get so upset when they denine me service. I dont know why I get so upset with mask shaming. Its silly but I find it better to avoid conflict than be upset for a half a day. The worse was when they refused to ring up my purchase for not having it over my nose. Where for months before the same person never cared that I was not wearing a mask.
I’ve learned liberty is a little like salvation. You don’t necessarily realize it’s value until you gain it after having experienced life without it. Then you can’t imagine giving it up again.
It was telling (as shown in Tucker last night) that Dr Fauci would offer no specifics with regard to when it will be “safe” to remove the masks even with broadly complete vaccination program. It’s like they have set the speed limit to 5 mph but you still have to wear a seatbelt.
I would like to see the House reps who always seem to have Herr fauci in front of their committee wear 7 or 8 masks. Have him say he can’t understand the questions thru the reps masks. fauci is almost as addled as biden.
One of my friends who is a hardcore Democrat was complaining yesterday on Facebook about her visit to a dermatologist, where the receptionist wasn’t wearing a mask. She, being the sort of person who should be named Karen, asked that the receptionist put one on. This woman has already been vaccinated. The receptionist said that she had been vaccinated and that there was still a good distance between them. “Karen” didn’t care and asked again. The receptionist apparently left and another masked receptionist took her place.
She was so proud of calling out the unmasked person. And her little Democrat friends were so proud of her.
There you go. Two people, both vaccinated, and yet one still insists on wearing a pointless mask and maintaining the mythological six foot distance.
We have been so brainwashed.
Is it that we have been brainwashed or that the little tyrants that exist in so many has been called forth? All babies seemingly start as tyrants and are socialized out of it. But some (many?) are just itching to have a socially acceptable “reason” to give it prominence again.
What were some of the superstitious actions and potions used by people during the Black Death? Kind of like that.
I’m in Dallas. No govt mandates, but no businesses I frequent are ready to lift their ban. Dagnabbit!
I work in DC and live in MD. Mask use is still nearly universal. Guys doing street repairs, joggers, everyone. I won’t wear the damn thing outdoors (I am still waiting for a confirmed case of outdoor transmission). I take it off most of the time at work.
There is an employee stationed at the doors of my local grocery store assigned to stop someone who comes in without a mask. He/she must also use a hand counter to add or subject customers going in and out. In its entire history, I don’t that store has hit even 80% of its COVID-allowable maximum.
How many man-hours and gratuitous expenses have been wasted..?
I carry my vaccination card in my wallet in case I am stopped maskless by authorities. I also carry tons of tissues because (a) the damn mask often makes my nose run like a snot-nosed kindergarten kid and (b) it will support my alibi of being respiratorily challenged.
I think Ricochet should create and give Tucker Carlson an Outstanding Journalist Award for his interview yesterday or the day before with Dr. Fauci on the subject of continued pandemic control measures in light of the high rate of vaccination that has now been achieved. Carlson is being accused of saying the vaccines don’t work, but that was not what he said. He asked Dr. Fauci to make a statement that the vaccines either work or they don’t. As Carlson has since elaborated, he knows they work, and Dr. Fauci knows they work. Public policy should reflect that: get rid of the pandemic controls now.
The point about the vaccines that needs to be emphasized is that they reduce the number of people walking around with active cases and symptoms. Those are the people who we know are spreading the disease to others. We–the CDC and I–know for sure that asymptomatic spread is not a big problem. It may exist, like the spread through “fomites,” on some insignificant level, but statistically, it has been shown that transmission occurs between people who have symptom-causing infections being in close quarters with other people for longer than ten minutes. It doesn’t occur through fomites or brief exposures to asymptomatic people.
The simple fact is that the lower the number of people with actives symptom-producing cases, the lower the number of new cases.
In Massachusetts, half of the adult population has had at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. From this point on, life should return to exactly the way we used to live before the pandemic. We have essentially statistically ended the pandemic as it was playing out in our state. Yes, we’ll have a few cases each year, and there will be variants to contend with. In terms of public health issues, it may be that this new virus has actually replaced the flu in the microorganism swamp. We’ll be spending the same amount of money we always have spent on upper respiratory diseases, but that money will be going to coronaviruses rather than influenza viruses. :-) It is likely that this new coronavirus either overpowers the flu or makes the host inhospitable to the flu virus somehow. The flu may disappear pretty much.
There is no need to continue with the pandemic hypervigilance. We can all relax. Tucker Carlson deserves the country’s thanks for making Dr. Fauci admit these facts.
Of course, I think I’d rather deal with the pandemic than “climate change.” The “climate change” people are far crazier than the pandemic people. I’ll soon be missing the virus discussions. There’s nowhere to even start a conversation about “climate change.”