An ode to “It’s just a mask.”
…in 35 parts.
THEM: It’s just a mask.
ME: …that
1/ wrecks our identities
2/ must be worn all day
3/ exacerbates aerosols
4/ covers our fucking faces
5/ grows bacteria and fungi
6/ causes skin wounds and tears
7/ muffles verbal communication
8/ all the RCTs show doesn’t work
9/ must be placed over a saxophone
10/ we must wear when we’re healthy
11/ children with zero risk had to wear
12/ you have no right to demand of us
13/ you coerced a billion people to wear
14/ presumes a healthy human is a weapon
15/ should be worn outdoors even when alone
16/ further cuts off the hard-of-hearing from society
17/ leads to excess CO2 and cardiovascular deficits
18/ “is absolutely no problem while I ran a marathon!”
19/ the “unclean” unvaccinated were later singled out to wear
20/ prevents children from normal social development
21/ gives medically negligent false reassurance to the immunocompromised
22/ “must be cloth I mean two cloth I mean surgical I always meant N95!”
23/ blocks our lower visual field and augments risks from falls
24/ is like how a head scarf is “just a head scarf” for the women in Iran
25/ serves only to signal membership in the righteous Covid Caring Club
26/ isn’t needed when you’re eating at a restaurant, but only when you walk around
27/ your laymen intuitions about “blocking sickness” have utterly failed you about
28/ destroys our emotional expressions which underlie true human social communication
29/ evolved to serve as political purity tests for the “unclean” BECAUSE masks irrational and harmful
30/ even if they worked, were historically used by surgeons for a couple hours standing still over a sick patient
31/ was widely viewed as torture, such as when suspected terrorists were made to wear them upon entering Guantanamo Bay
32/ you said didn’t work and then two months later “The Science” magically demonstrated they work
33/ is deeply uncomfortable, suggesting that our body does not at all want it there; and discomfort and pain responses are there for a reason
34/ surgeons NEVER wore for viral spread, but, rather, for stopping bacteria-riddled spittle and wound goop; why do surgeons go maskless when meeting patients before surgery?
35/ the burden of evidence requires maskers to show they work, not anti-maskers to show they don’t stop viral aerosols which obviously go through and leak out the gaps
I have been all over the mask side of medical tyranny since the start, and have disproportionately concentrated on the less discussed complex psycho-societal issues concerning masks.
See my movie of sorts…
Face Masks, the Movie, with Cognitive Scientist Dr. Mark Changizi