despite REVELATION after REVELATION the “follow the science! mask up!” crowd simply will not stop.
their self-congratulatory propaganda for having learned the proper pseudoscientific virtue signaling cues continues unabated. humans are bad at this, so, once more, it falls to the internet felines to fix it:
there. that’s better.
there is simply no sound epidemiological or virological argument for masks and never was. the same drones screaming that we needed randomized controlled trials for any and every possible treatment, no matter how safe, suddenly accept the mask religion despite the total lack of RCT’s to support it. there are none, the CDC said so themselves. (see 2nd link above) and masks are not SAFE. they have real costs.
new CDC mask POLICY makes no sense and was never supposed to. the studies they have pushed are junk science to form a flimsy pretext for a public disinformation campaign to allow politicians to look like they are “doing something” and “saving you” and as an enabler to the neurotic virtue signalers that seem to make up such a significant and vocal wedge of US society and twitter histrionics.
masks have been woven so deeply into so many people’s identities because masking the face of a human has a major effect on the perception and expression of identity.
being rendered faceless and robbed of non-verbal communication and socialization cues is not a small thing. it’s a longstanding tool of interrogation and brainwashing.
just as one would predict, this fractured the brains of many among us through an unending cavalcade of bugbears and hobgoblins and a relentless narrative of MOAR FEAR juxtaposed against tangible talismanic mitigation and in-group signaling.
this broke them to the mask like you’d break a horse to the saddle.
it begins as pavlovian conditioning, but then sets as deep, instinctual preference tuning as cognitive dissonance takes hold and the aggravation of wearing a mask actually becomes the reason you become more and more convinced that it works, saves lives, and expresses virtue. human brains are trixy that way.
the science goes begging because reading and accepting it would mean admitting that you’ve been taken for a fool and have been acting like a preachy rube conned by a shady traveling ministry. the more you wear a mask, the more the information that wearing a mask is pointless just convinces you that you need to mask harder and so must everyone else.
you will not engage with data, you’ll dismiss it as anti-science and anti-social because your brain would rather twist reality into a hallucinatory landscape where you are the virtuous hero and all your hectoring and posing was noble and brave than admit that you were a dope and got taken in by a scam.
and the longer you do it, the more intense this gets.
this is the sound of cognitive dissonance ice starting to crack. we are virtuous! we believe in science! we have been through hell!
no, you haven’t. not from covid. the hell was all from the policy reaction. new york’s hospitals were no more jammed from covid than they were from the 2018 flu season. this is the outlandish dramatization of facts to justify the insane actions taken and the monstrous price they exacted.
again, that’s cognitive dissonance for you. lockdowns never worked and the costs were probably the most egregious peacetime imposition in human history. to look back on that and realize you bought nothing is not emotionally easy.
it’s a stark admission that you sold the family cow for what you thought were magic beans but turned out to be little pellets of rabbit poo.
at a certain point, what you did is so embarrassing that you just keep eating poop and claiming you like it.
this will be the pathology of the recovery. the real "long covid” threat comes from the sputterings of psychological derangement trying to right themselves. for many, this will get worse before it gets better. this is why the vaccinated still want masks. they are too committed to the narrative and have woven it into the structures of their internal psychology and self-justification.
it has, for all intents and purposes, become a facet of identity, filling the gap that being faceless left.
for these people, they are not just ending a habit, they are having to unpick the seams on who they have become and re-weave themselves back into something possessed of human identity and human agency.
this is the part where the cult gets twice as devout because the world failed to end as prophesied.
brace for it, because it’s coming.
but do not cede your sovereignty or reason to it, because it’s wrong.
Completely agree. Tried to have a rational conversation with a coworker to just agree that we can’t wear masks forever. Greeted with, we should to protect the immune compromised, “it’s not just about covid”. My mom was immune compromised since I was about 10. She lived her life and didn’t expect people to alter their lives for her. Too many people don’t think for themselves.
This is the most accurate prediction of re-opening I’ve read. It used to be that cults were the minority. With Covid, they were the majority - soaring away w Xenu to the afterlife.
As they realize the starship is imaginary, some will fall from the sky back to earth. Thinking about how we get more and more to fall each day, and show them a gentle landing, the faster we get back to normal.
It starts by showing normal parts of the world functioning without ultra-covid-death. Travel is very compelling in changing views.
wonderful stuff Bad Cat! Now suddenly, it's all and sundry telling me "but look at India".
I have never masked up except to go into the supermarket, (and that under heavy protest) and never will. Masks are mandatory indoors and out here for the last seems like forever (six or eight months at least) and never will. But I think people will never come back down to earth.
I see people masked up walking in the countryside.
Your essay just makes it plain why. It will be masks until the dieoff is complete.
I had a question for you. I’m generally against masks and I absolutely don’t wear one when I have to. I was in Florida recently and I found it odd that there still appeared to be a good bit of mask wearing. Now I was in Orlando and Jacksonville but do you make anything of that and their numbers or am I confused?
very well put! I am observing the cognitive dissonance cracking in real time in NYC today. Still majority masked up, but fewer than yesterday, and central park today seemed (again--just like before the summer madness) majority unmasked. I didn't even get looks today maskless in the subway. I still wait for the collective shoe drop on how ruinous the policies were all the good maskers supported.
Completely agree. Tried to have a rational conversation with a coworker to just agree that we can’t wear masks forever. Greeted with, we should to protect the immune compromised, “it’s not just about covid”. My mom was immune compromised since I was about 10. She lived her life and didn’t expect people to alter their lives for her. Too many people don’t think for themselves.
> “ this will be the pathology of the recovery.”
This is the most accurate prediction of re-opening I’ve read. It used to be that cults were the minority. With Covid, they were the majority - soaring away w Xenu to the afterlife.
As they realize the starship is imaginary, some will fall from the sky back to earth. Thinking about how we get more and more to fall each day, and show them a gentle landing, the faster we get back to normal.
It starts by showing normal parts of the world functioning without ultra-covid-death. Travel is very compelling in changing views.
<gracias, gato malo, por su ayuda >
wonderful stuff Bad Cat! Now suddenly, it's all and sundry telling me "but look at India".
I have never masked up except to go into the supermarket, (and that under heavy protest) and never will. Masks are mandatory indoors and out here for the last seems like forever (six or eight months at least) and never will. But I think people will never come back down to earth.
I see people masked up walking in the countryside.
Your essay just makes it plain why. It will be masks until the dieoff is complete.
"We" want them scared" is their operational vision.
"We" want them to crave safety.
Then "we" can do what Hitler did and lead them bc "it's for your safety".
There is no benign in the "we": US, media, nor most levels of rulers.
I had a question for you. I’m generally against masks and I absolutely don’t wear one when I have to. I was in Florida recently and I found it odd that there still appeared to be a good bit of mask wearing. Now I was in Orlando and Jacksonville but do you make anything of that and their numbers or am I confused?
so good! they are very dug in
Beautifully explained Gato!
Muy bien, el gato.
very well put! I am observing the cognitive dissonance cracking in real time in NYC today. Still majority masked up, but fewer than yesterday, and central park today seemed (again--just like before the summer madness) majority unmasked. I didn't even get looks today maskless in the subway. I still wait for the collective shoe drop on how ruinous the policies were all the good maskers supported.
The flip side of Romeo's advice on Tin Cup: "Their brain was getting in the way!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5CkmKGQDb0