If you’ve been alive in the last 10 years, you know that masks have taken on a significant role in society.
It began with the rise of AFTIFA, the far-left violent protestors who came to prominence after President Trump’s first election. Dressed in black with balaclavas to cover their faces, they hid their identities from the public. It was cowardly. If they had the courage of their convictions, they would have committed their acts of instigation and violence full faced before the public. But they hid behind masks to avoid the condemnation they would surely have received had the public known their identity. Silly little urchins, they were probably afraid that their parents would see them on TV doing antics that would lose them the keys to the Volvo. Heaven forbid that these masqueraded “warriors” would have to take an Uber to a protest. After all, it’s hard to hide Molotov cocktails, bricks, batons, or urine jars in the trunk of a small car without a significant tip to the driver to keep his mouth shut.
Next, of course, who can forget the hysteria over masking during the Chinese-induced COVID crisis. Jettisoning decades of evidence that keeping a safe distance would be sufficient to avoid flu bugs, America was compelled to “mask up,” as if it were a patriotic duty. This turned out to be nonsense, despite all the virtue signaling by the far left to this day that “masks were our duty!” No, they were our subjugation. That said, many of us—including me —played along when in public. In time, most of us grew increasingly skeptical of the efficacy of masking. Indeed, when Joe Biden was in the White House—blessedly no longer—the face mask ridiculousness rose to new heights as the President wore one during a Zoom teleconference! I guess he was concerned with tele-transported viruses. Recall when you saw people riding around alone in their cars wearing a mask. Yep, apparently those viruses can achieve a lot of speed.
Some people would protest. Indeed, many years after the COVID hysteria had receded, people in Washington State are still being prosecuted for refusing to wear a mask in a voting polling place. Yes, the mask-minders are intent on tormenting people for their own good, hunting them down years later until they confess their unpatriotic behavior to the health commissars of our age and are imprisoned.
In time, wearing or not wearing masks took on political overtones. In general liberals—mostly those who despised Trump—were obsequiously compliant, to the point that masking was more about virtue signaling than a medical necessity. Conservatives discarded masks as if to declare their abhorrence to tyranny. Both groups overstated their case. Wearing masks in public was unnecessary as long as you maintained an acceptable distance from others, observed routine hygiene, and avoided sneezing or coughing on others. Likewise, wearing masks around vulnerable populations, like those in nursing homes or hospitals, was no threat to freedom. In sum, the masses engaged in “mask hysteria.”
Contrast all of this—the masking of malcontents and those panicked over COVID—with the efforts today to make ICE agents unmask themselves in the face of violent thugs, who are obstructing the enforcement of American immigration laws! In many cases, the same cohort who supported mask-wearing AFTIFA agitators—while forcing the rest of us to wear masks during COVID when distancing and hygiene would have sufficed—are now saying that ICE agents should not wear masks to protect their identity. Never mind that they are confronted by violent groups who are seeking to endanger them and their families. Some would call this rank hypocrisy. I call it a deliberate and callus effort to endanger lawful and innocent ICE agents and their families by hateful people who support illegal aliens.
I think it’s time to unmask some other things.
First, we need laws passed now that make it illegal for people engaged in criminal activity—like ANTIFA and those supporting violence against law enforcement—to hide behind masks or other face coverings.
Second, we should make requiring masks during public health emergencies predicated on proven medical science, not political science.
Third, if we really want to pursue unmasking, then let’s not target law enforcement officers, who mask to protect themselves from malicious efforts by criminal elements to imperil them while doing their jobs. Let’s instead devote ourselves to unmasking the active dangers of our age.
That might begin with unmasking antisemitism on our college campuses. Or maybe the unmasking of those who are apoplectic over the national debt but oppose modest efforts to reduce spending. Or possibly unmasking a radical antisemite and communist mooncalf running for mayor in New York City who hates free enterprise and the police. Let’s unmask that dangerous clown before it’s too late.
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