Maybe the fact that face masks are so deeply uncomfortable and humiliating that they are used in torture should have given us a hint that they’re unhealthy to wear
Maybe the fact that face masks are so deeply uncomfortable and humiliating that they are used in torture should have given us a hint that they’re unhealthy to wear
- Used as BDSM Submissive to Dom, Slave to Master obedience devices
- Used by Bank Robbers and Plane Hijackers to terrorize victims and captives
was reason enough for me to Just Say No.
I'm nobody's slave or submissive. And my face is typically pleasant and inviting, curious, joyful, spreading smiles and good cheer, non-threatening.
I save my mean-mugging, scowls and don't mess with me face for the rarely appropriate encounters. My intentions remain clearly expressed for the world to see. No barriers to my humanity. That would make me inhuman, inhumane.
I'd go to many costume parties before 2020. The 2-3 times I wore a costume mask I didn't enjoy myself. I missed the connection my face brought to them. And when the initial impression and appreciation of the other characters wearing masks I'd meet wore off the masks got in the way for me to mentally appreciate the person underneath. Many introverts and socially awkward enjoyed them, masks allowed their alter egos to emerge. As an extrovert and someone who can jump into character without props, masks would interfere, and I'd feel confined to a character after I tired of it.
I was created to be expressly human. And I refused to forsake my creator, that inalienable right he endowed me with.
What I found more often was people who understood they were just performative, no real protection, but didn't think they were that big a deal, weren't bothered enough to make a stink, believed they were being courteous and respectful to those who were 'at-risk' and declared masks weren't their hill to die on, even tsk-tsk those who disobeyed, "aww, c'mon man, you know the rules, they're stupid, but just wear the damn things like everyone else has to."
They didn't necessarily support mask mandates but rules are rules and don't be a jerk and make a scene was their attitude.
They never understood that mandated symbols, symbolic displays they knew were just performative, were mandated speech. Symbols are the oldest form of speech, understood by the illiterate. And mandated speech is the other side of the same free speech coin as prohibited speech.
They unwittingly declared that free speech, the First Amendment that guarantees our freedom wasn't their hill to die on. Giving a green light to authorities to censor us, criminalize our speech. From prosecuting nonmaskers for not wearing a symbol, free faces speaking "I'm not buying this pandemic BS" to prosecuting "election deniers." Not their hill to die on. Fools.
Once they consented to wear a mask of submission they accepted a master who dominates them; they no longer view themselves as truly free. And get angry with those who don't submit as they did, "what, do you think you're special?!?!" In slave societies, in prisons, it's the other slaves and prisoners who become the biggest enforcers of conformity, compliance. Much rarer for the master or guard to discipline. The Karen effect.
You said, "In slave societies, in prisons, it's the other slaves and prisoners who become the biggest enforcers of conformity, compliance." Yes, I remember reading about the Kapo in Viktor Frankls book Man's Search for Meaning, about the Holocaust experience.
When reading the book I thought that was their fear of being on the other side (receiving the mistreatment) that caused them to keep going with what their abusers were doing. If you don't want to die or be mistreated, you will try to be the "best" enforcer. It's like the fear response of fawning. You want to make your abuser think you are with them, so they don't go after you.
I'm not convinced those people who you mention did it solely out of caring for people, but rather didn't want to be ostracized as a "COVID-denier" etc. Though they may not have been afraid of COVID, they may have been afraid of the Democrats.
Aug 6, 2023·edited Aug 6, 2023Liked by Mark Changizi
I'm sure that was the case for many, particularly in a confined environment like a prison/death camp. But Frankl's' telling of kapo's is flawed. They weren't just fear motivated. They were opportunistic profiteers and enablers of human horrors. And would even deliver punishment, would even be the Pied Pipers to death. Yes, saving one's own neck is a powerful human motivation. But Frankl's writings are an exercise in excusing one's own guilty conscience. It's a permission slip for all but the very top of a pyramid of evil to lean into, all collectively guilty of allowing, enabling and committing evil except for the handful of the maniacal few. Great evil doesn't happen without a society of Frankl's. The banality of evil is people who aren't evil doing evil things.
My understanding of humans is that far more are influenced by conformity, hard-wired to conform than fearing physical abuse. And when most felt duty-bound to conform, make a sacrifice, particularly one they don't think is that big a deal, they're telling themselves ''if I have to do this then so do you, who do you think you are, you're no better than me." Misery truly loves company.
People are envious of those who demonstrate courage when they are cowards. Displays of courage remind them of their own cowardice, an unpleasant reflection of self, like a vampire's reaction to a mirror, few people like to look at an unflattering image and will knock a mirror out of the hand of someone holding it up to them. What reaction do you get when you straight up call someone a hypocrite?
On a plantation there were slaves in the field, worked to death, housed in squalor. And slaves in the home, easier work, housed in relative comfort. The most obedient ones enjoyed perks. Even the fieldhouse slaves had tiers based on obedience, enforcing obedience. More food rations, treated more respectfully by slave owner and other slaves alike. They did the dirty enforcement work. And many slaves jockeyed for higher status.
Prison life is the same. Certain prisoners are given more perks by guards and wardens for keeping other prisoners in line. It's why prisons are structurally organized by race. Whites, Blacks, Mexicans, Chinese, all are segregated to be kept in line by the top rank in a race. Yes, they'll interact with other races. But not too chummy. "Remember your race" is said as a not-gentle reminder to stay with your own. Or suffer consequences. Order.
It's how a handful of guards and controllers of much larger numbers of people maintain order. Perks accrue to other slaves and prisoners who keep order.
And there's the whole Stockholm Syndrome effect. Victims taking the side of their captors, even helping to protect their kidnappers from capture, becoming one of them. Similar to domestic abuse, when a spouse defends their abuser. Will even tell a nosy neighbor offering to help to mind their own business, treat the neighbor as a threat to their 'happy' home.
All sorts of human psychology phenomenon to describe why people obey and become enforcers of authoritarian control over those who step out of line. And all used by behavioral scientists, The Best Science (TM) of these times we're told we must follow, obey, tools of psychological control.
An author with valuable insights on what living, surviving Nazi Germany was like is Victor Klemperer. Not a hero. Not a villain. He's an anti-hero. Not evil or immoral, but lacking all the traits of traditional heroes such as bravery, nobility, and virtue. With some of his own character imperfections, like aggression and cynicism. Fact is, most people are like him. His story lived by a majority is why evil prevails. "Land of the free, home of the brave." The former dependent on the later. Without bravery there can be no freedom. Impossible.
[Big Media today is largely an exercise in *exactly* what he describes in LTI. Techniques, the tell-tale signs of state propaganda, laid out, the linguistic parallels are too similar to dismiss.]
The fact that pre-2020 they were only:
- Used as BDSM Submissive to Dom, Slave to Master obedience devices
- Used by Bank Robbers and Plane Hijackers to terrorize victims and captives
was reason enough for me to Just Say No.
I'm nobody's slave or submissive. And my face is typically pleasant and inviting, curious, joyful, spreading smiles and good cheer, non-threatening.
I save my mean-mugging, scowls and don't mess with me face for the rarely appropriate encounters. My intentions remain clearly expressed for the world to see. No barriers to my humanity. That would make me inhuman, inhumane.
I'd go to many costume parties before 2020. The 2-3 times I wore a costume mask I didn't enjoy myself. I missed the connection my face brought to them. And when the initial impression and appreciation of the other characters wearing masks I'd meet wore off the masks got in the way for me to mentally appreciate the person underneath. Many introverts and socially awkward enjoyed them, masks allowed their alter egos to emerge. As an extrovert and someone who can jump into character without props, masks would interfere, and I'd feel confined to a character after I tired of it.
I was created to be expressly human. And I refused to forsake my creator, that inalienable right he endowed me with.
.
I Love The Chronically Vaccinated.
And Especially The Mask Wearers.
Because I Love Watching People
That Simultaneously
Are A Threat To Themselves
AND
Live In Mortal Fear.
.
They were so frightened it was impossible to discuss this rationally with them. But logically it never made sense to me.
What I found more often was people who understood they were just performative, no real protection, but didn't think they were that big a deal, weren't bothered enough to make a stink, believed they were being courteous and respectful to those who were 'at-risk' and declared masks weren't their hill to die on, even tsk-tsk those who disobeyed, "aww, c'mon man, you know the rules, they're stupid, but just wear the damn things like everyone else has to."
They didn't necessarily support mask mandates but rules are rules and don't be a jerk and make a scene was their attitude.
They never understood that mandated symbols, symbolic displays they knew were just performative, were mandated speech. Symbols are the oldest form of speech, understood by the illiterate. And mandated speech is the other side of the same free speech coin as prohibited speech.
They unwittingly declared that free speech, the First Amendment that guarantees our freedom wasn't their hill to die on. Giving a green light to authorities to censor us, criminalize our speech. From prosecuting nonmaskers for not wearing a symbol, free faces speaking "I'm not buying this pandemic BS" to prosecuting "election deniers." Not their hill to die on. Fools.
Once they consented to wear a mask of submission they accepted a master who dominates them; they no longer view themselves as truly free. And get angry with those who don't submit as they did, "what, do you think you're special?!?!" In slave societies, in prisons, it's the other slaves and prisoners who become the biggest enforcers of conformity, compliance. Much rarer for the master or guard to discipline. The Karen effect.
You said, "In slave societies, in prisons, it's the other slaves and prisoners who become the biggest enforcers of conformity, compliance." Yes, I remember reading about the Kapo in Viktor Frankls book Man's Search for Meaning, about the Holocaust experience.
When reading the book I thought that was their fear of being on the other side (receiving the mistreatment) that caused them to keep going with what their abusers were doing. If you don't want to die or be mistreated, you will try to be the "best" enforcer. It's like the fear response of fawning. You want to make your abuser think you are with them, so they don't go after you.
I'm not convinced those people who you mention did it solely out of caring for people, but rather didn't want to be ostracized as a "COVID-denier" etc. Though they may not have been afraid of COVID, they may have been afraid of the Democrats.
I'm sure that was the case for many, particularly in a confined environment like a prison/death camp. But Frankl's' telling of kapo's is flawed. They weren't just fear motivated. They were opportunistic profiteers and enablers of human horrors. And would even deliver punishment, would even be the Pied Pipers to death. Yes, saving one's own neck is a powerful human motivation. But Frankl's writings are an exercise in excusing one's own guilty conscience. It's a permission slip for all but the very top of a pyramid of evil to lean into, all collectively guilty of allowing, enabling and committing evil except for the handful of the maniacal few. Great evil doesn't happen without a society of Frankl's. The banality of evil is people who aren't evil doing evil things.
My understanding of humans is that far more are influenced by conformity, hard-wired to conform than fearing physical abuse. And when most felt duty-bound to conform, make a sacrifice, particularly one they don't think is that big a deal, they're telling themselves ''if I have to do this then so do you, who do you think you are, you're no better than me." Misery truly loves company.
People are envious of those who demonstrate courage when they are cowards. Displays of courage remind them of their own cowardice, an unpleasant reflection of self, like a vampire's reaction to a mirror, few people like to look at an unflattering image and will knock a mirror out of the hand of someone holding it up to them. What reaction do you get when you straight up call someone a hypocrite?
On a plantation there were slaves in the field, worked to death, housed in squalor. And slaves in the home, easier work, housed in relative comfort. The most obedient ones enjoyed perks. Even the fieldhouse slaves had tiers based on obedience, enforcing obedience. More food rations, treated more respectfully by slave owner and other slaves alike. They did the dirty enforcement work. And many slaves jockeyed for higher status.
Prison life is the same. Certain prisoners are given more perks by guards and wardens for keeping other prisoners in line. It's why prisons are structurally organized by race. Whites, Blacks, Mexicans, Chinese, all are segregated to be kept in line by the top rank in a race. Yes, they'll interact with other races. But not too chummy. "Remember your race" is said as a not-gentle reminder to stay with your own. Or suffer consequences. Order.
It's how a handful of guards and controllers of much larger numbers of people maintain order. Perks accrue to other slaves and prisoners who keep order.
And there's the whole Stockholm Syndrome effect. Victims taking the side of their captors, even helping to protect their kidnappers from capture, becoming one of them. Similar to domestic abuse, when a spouse defends their abuser. Will even tell a nosy neighbor offering to help to mind their own business, treat the neighbor as a threat to their 'happy' home.
All sorts of human psychology phenomenon to describe why people obey and become enforcers of authoritarian control over those who step out of line. And all used by behavioral scientists, The Best Science (TM) of these times we're told we must follow, obey, tools of psychological control.
An author with valuable insights on what living, surviving Nazi Germany was like is Victor Klemperer. Not a hero. Not a villain. He's an anti-hero. Not evil or immoral, but lacking all the traits of traditional heroes such as bravery, nobility, and virtue. With some of his own character imperfections, like aggression and cynicism. Fact is, most people are like him. His story lived by a majority is why evil prevails. "Land of the free, home of the brave." The former dependent on the later. Without bravery there can be no freedom. Impossible.
Survivor, Christopher Hitchens
The Atlantic, December, 2004
https://web.archive.org/web/20120823234807/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/12/survivor/303614/
Additional reading for the more curious:
I Will Bear Witness (Two parts):
https://archive.org/details/KlempererVictorIWillBearWitness19421945ADiaryOfTheNaziYears/Klemperer%2C%20Victor%20-%20I%20Will%20Bear%20Witness%20%20A%20Diary%20of%20the%20Nazi%20Years%2C%201933-1941/
The Lesser Evil:
https://archive.org/details/KlempererVictorTheLesserEvilTheDiariesOfVictorKlemperer194559
Language of the Third Reich:
https://archive.org/details/klemperer-victor-j-auth-language-of-the-third-reich-lti-lingua
[Big Media today is largely an exercise in *exactly* what he describes in LTI. Techniques, the tell-tale signs of state propaganda, laid out, the linguistic parallels are too similar to dismiss.]