10 Reasons Why I Refuse to Wear a
Mask
by Mike Wittmann
Why won’t I wear a mask?
First, it’s not because I’m selfish, anti-science, I want your
grandma to die, Donald Trump told me not to, I believe CV is a
Russian hoax, etc. Second, I actually don’t care if people wear
masks or not. If you want to wear one, go for it. Throw on a face
shield or even a HAZMAT suit on your way to Target and I’ll do
nothing but smile and wave when we cross paths in the kombucha
aisle.
But I’ve decided I’m not going to wear
one. Here’s why:
1. My
face belongs to me.
- My body and, consequently, my face
are my own personal property. They do not belong to anyone else,
including the Mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska or the Interim Health
Director of the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department. This
point is not inconsequential because most State abuses and
overreach violate a person’s rights to ownership of themselves
and their property.
2. I
don’t have COVID-19.
- Okay, stick with me here. In order
for me to transmit a disease to another person I would
actually have to have the disease. I cannot pass on a
disease that I do not have. While the data has been somewhat
mixed, as it always is when it’s from the real world, everything
I’ve read suggests that asymptomatic, or the newly coined term “presymptomatic” spread
is extremely unlikely. If a person has CV they should stay home.
If they don’t there’s no sense in them wearing a mask.
3.
Masks may actually increase a healthy person’s chances of
contracting COVID-19.
4. I
don’t buy the “your mask protects everyone else” argument because
it’s unreasonable and illogical.
- If people are worried about
contracting CV, for whatever reason, they are free to make any
number of choices to protect themselves, including:
- Staying at home.
- Ordering goods like groceries
and restaurant food through delivery or curbside pickup
services.
- Wearing a mask or other PPE
while shopping.
- Observing strict social
distancing protocols while in public.
- Supporting their own immune
system through nutrition and other lifestyle choices.
- So if I have CV (I don’t)
the only people I could possibly spread it to are other people
who have willfully chosen to visit public spaces, just as I
have. While virtually every decision we make as humans will
impact one or more others to some degree, it is not logical,
reasonable, or even possible for me to assume responsibility for
choices made by everyone else.
5. It
is good, right, and noble for me to have “skin in the game” when it
comes to the choices I make and the beliefs I promote.
- If I were to rattle on here on my
blog and on social media about the importance of individual
liberty, logical decision making, bodily autonomy, understanding
secondary effects (cf. Antifragile),
and resisting State tyranny in all instances but then throw on a
mask the moment I walk into a business you would have every
reason to dismiss me as a disingenuous charlatan who should not
be listened to in any circumstance.
For the sake of integrity, I have to refuse to wear a
mask unless and until I’m convinced otherwise. I have to risk
the disapproving looks and the “Where’s your mask?” comments. I have
to live out the necessary conclusions of my beliefs. The
obvious cherry on top is that if somehow I’m wrong about all
this I’ll get CV and it could possibly be harmful to me. I’ve
got skin in the game and wouldn’t have it any other way.
6.
Resisting small time tyranny is great practice for resisting big
time tyranny if and when it occurs.
- While I certainly love a good
conspiracy theory, I think what’s most likely happening here is
a typical statist overreaction leading to overreach and
infringement on the rights of individuals. You give kids new
toys and they play new games. You give mid-level county
bureaucrats a so-called public health emergency and it’s only
natural that they’re going to take advantage of their new-found
importance and authority.
So here we are with an unelected interim Health
Director (an RN, by the way, and not a doctor or an
epidemiologist) who now has the power to use
force of violence to close down privately owned businesses and
determine how public
schools function based on some arbitrarily set risk dial.
Rather than going along to get along, the strategy here is to
push back in the “little things” in order to prevent even
greater problems when the “big things” come along later on,
whether that’s mandatory vaccinations, travel restrictions,
closing of private business, and so on.
It’s not “just a mask.” It’s about reminding our leaders that we
are inherently free people that do not belong to them and cannot
be controlled by their whims.
7.
The fastest, safest, least costly way to “beat” COVID-19 is by
quickly spreading the disease through the least vulnerable among us
in order to protect the most vulnerable.
- This doctor from Sweden said
it better than I can, but the takeaway here is that it’s far
better to have an intact economy and no preventable deaths
than it is to burn your economy to the ground and no preventable deaths.
8.
The “silent majority” needs people who are willing to speak up and
show up.
- Virtually every time I defy the
mask mandate in a public space I get a thumbs up, a smile and
nod, and/or a supportive comment from at least one person. I’ve
also heard from quite a few people, in private and in public,
that they adamantly disagree with mask mandates but are afraid
or unwilling to be noncompliant. It may be my own selection
bias, but a good 80% of the people I know and talk to share my
position on this issue and on CV in general.
When I exercise my right to not be “masked up” in public I
encourage those people and help them to realize they’re not
alone in seeing the world as it really is rather than swallowing
the Doomer narrative whole.
Additionally, the sooner we dispel the irrational fear around CV
the sooner we can get things back as close to normal as
possible. There is a sizable percentage of people who have
realized all of the mandates and restrictions make no practical
sense. We need that group to be as vocal and visible as
possible.
9. I
don’t believe in the importance of mask mandates and other social
distancing decrees because neither do they.
- I recently flew to St. Louis from
Omaha. Masks were MANDATORY on the flight. Unless you’re eating
or drinking, then you can take it off, because the virus is
aware that it can’t spread if you’ve got a Diet Coke in your
hand. Stores like Walmart and Home Depot are open for business
but churches, restaurants, and small businesses have been forced
to close. Oh, and if you’re congregating in public to protest
one cause or another then you can’t catch or spread the
coronavirus. It’s just science!
If the disease were truly as dangerous and easily contracted as
we’re being told it is there wouldn’t be exceptions. There
wouldn’t be rules that obviously make no sense.
10. I
believe in the human immune system.
- If I should happen to contract CV,
which is entirely possible since all
of us will eventually be exposed to it somewhere, I’m
extremely confident my immune system will be able to protect me
from it. I also believe that is true of virtually everyone in
society, especially if they decide to make nutritional and
lifestyle choices that bolster rather than suppress their own
immune system.
What about the immunocompromised and people with complicating
conditions? See point #4 above. They are perfectly free to do
anything and everything they believe is necessary to protect
themselves to whatever degree they choose. Honestly, that’s none
of my business.
11.
Masks are dehumanizing and contrary to the richness of human
existence.
-
Here’s a bonus reason, eleven for
the price of ten! At some point we have to think about what sort
of life we’re trying to protect here. Removing everything that
makes the human experience rich, beautiful, and satisfying might
marginally reduce the risks of something “bad” happening. But
life isn’t about avoiding risk at all costs to the point that
whatever you’re left with is barely worth living at all.
mikewittmann.com
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