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This is a perfect microcosm of the whole thing. It's been clear for some time that anti-maskers are more interested in pissing people off than upholding some kind of lofty ideal. https://twitter.com/CanuckSync/status/1332318363369009153
"It's not freedom if nobody is mad at me for what I'm doing." That's the ideology here. The right to freedom, according to them, is the right to break social contracts at will without any consequence— social or otherwise.
And make no mistake, public safety *is* a social contract. It has to be. I wear a mask and keep my distance or stay home to keep you safe, and you do the same for me, and we both (hopefully) survive the pandemic intact.
This is restrictive! It's restrictive because certain behaviours are now dangerous. We know COVID-19 is deadly. We also know it severely, possibly permanently, damages the organs of the people who survive it.
But that matters far less to people like this than being able to piss someone off, because that's how you know freedom is working.
I honestly think that's the key here. Anti-maskers, and honestly conservatives generally, require an other to antagonize. Freedom in a world where you don't face social opprobrium for your actions isn't really free.
Freedom requires conflict; therefore they perpetuate conflict and think that makes them free.
The thing is, conflict is a natural byproduct of freedom, as ideas clash with each other.
The thing is, conflict is a natural byproduct of freedom, as ideas clash with each other.
This is an *artificial* conflict. It's done for the express purpose of creating conflict, because that's supposed to prove the existence of freedom. It belies a deep insecurity at the heart of conservatism.
The world is a dark and scary place for conservatives. Not specifically; but in their minds it is. They believe that their rights are being eroded because other people are finally getting some. They believe that their freedom is under attack because they can't eat ribs in public.
They're paranoid about a shadowy authoritarian "them" who wants to enslave them, and yet they never stop to think that mask-wearing fits right in with their anti-authoritarianism: Can't be caught on camera with a mask on!
Like, seriously, if any anti-maskers have read this far, consider for a moment that we're surrounded by surveillance tools and public safety officials are basically begging us to render them useless. And you're not taking advantage of this opportunity? Why?
It shows the incoherency of this ideology. It's not about freedom at all. It's about being able to do whatever you want without any consequence whatsoever. And that's not, and has never been, the same thing.
