We’ve been living in Texas for just over a month now. And, for just over a month now, we’ve been living a normal life. Normal as in, the masks are no longer sitting in pockets, bags, or counters ready to be grabbed when leaving the house. Nope. They’ve been thrown away (except for the Mike Rowe ones). We don’t need them. They are not required anywhere. Going to the store? Just walk in. Restaurant? Walk in. It’s soooo refreshing.
Yes, people do wear them, but that’s their choice. Radical concept I know, but there you are. Personal choice and personal responsibility. And employees in big box stores are wearing them due to the usual corporate one-size-fits-all policies. Although there are a lot of chin masks…
Before we moved, we were doing our grocery shopping in New Jersey (prices are lower, liquor was easy to buy and less expensive, gas was at least $0.20/gallon lower, and there was a Wegman’s). But we stilled carried masks, because while (at the time) NJ hadn’t gone full cray-cray like Philly, you just never knew when you might walk into a store and discover a mask requirement. So, I had at least a couple masks in my bag all the time. And that was probably faaarrr germier than going around without a mask.
Anyway, moving here has been a breath of fresh air…literally. No mask requirements anywhere. Life is normal.
I was talking to a friend in Philly the other day and commented that I hadn’t realized just how much low-level stress I had been carting around until I didn’t have to worry about the masks all the time. The relief from stress has been noticeable. She agreed and said that she really didn’t like going into the city because of the mask requirements and the stress that accompanied them. She has breathing issues, I get claustrophobic wearing a mask too long. Stress.
And it’s not just the masks. They’re really just a symbol of the stress of having to deal with random, contradictory, and useless rules and regulations imposed by unelected, and power-hungry bureaucrats. They’re also used for virtue-signaling. I care about you! Really, I do! See? I’m wearing a mask! Masks announce that people are worried about getting Wuflu, and the current dreaded, terrifying, horrific…yet weaker…omicron (omicrap) variant. And constantly being around worried people raises my stress levels. As I’ve said before, every competent epidemiologist around has been trying to tell the world that virus variants get weaker with every evolution, not stronger. But, noooo, y’all want to visibly demonstrate how good you are at following orders and “being sensitive” to the feelings of those around you. Right. Whatever.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…if an immunocompromised person is out wandering around in public it is their responsibility to make sure they don’t catch anything. I don’t know the health status of every single person I pass when I’m in a store or walking down the street and I’m certainly not about to ask for that information. If they’re not supposed to be out where they can catch a cold or the flu or something else that will have a severe negative impact on their system, well then…they get to make those decisions. I am certainly not going to organize my life around some possible health issue of some stranger. I also wouldn’t expect them to organize their lives around me.
And before you scream pandemic at me…show me where people are dropping dead in the streets (not nursing homes, and not hospitals where the wrong methods are being used, and things like ivermectin, which would eliminate the need for ventilators in most Wuflu patients, are not being prescribed). Show me the homeless encampments filled with dead bodies. You are aware that those videos from China in 2020 with people falling in the streets were fake, right? Oh, and I’ve got for-real quarantine camps in Australia to show you. Is that a rational answer? If you say yes, I invite you to get yourself down to Australia and check yourself into a camp. Go on. I double-dog dare you.
Here, in our new home, personal responsibility is the way it goes. The decision to wear a mask is up to the individual. And that is how it should be. Mask mandates, like vaccine mandates, are all about power over you. They have nothing to do with your health or the health of those around you. Don’t believe me? Go find pictures of any Hollywood award show in the last year…who’s wearing masks? Staff, always. Participants, never. Ask yourself why AOC and Bang-Bang Fang-Fang Swalwell are in Florida, home of a governor they claim is killing people left and right with his “irresponsible” policies. If Florida is the abattoir they claim it is, why are they visiting? I don’t blame them for visiting. Life in Florida is normal. Life in DC and New York and the SF Bay Area is most decidedly NOT normal.
Happily, places in this country where life is normal again outnumber those places still living in a Democrat-created dystopian nightmare. I don’t know about you guys, but I really prefer normal over dystopian nightmare. Just sayin’.
Want life to go back to normal? Stop obeying useless rules and regulations. Based on what’s going on in your neck of the woods, do the best you can. At the very least, you can still speak up. Stop agreeing with the Karens who go on about “community safety” and other such b.s. Go do research and have that data at your fingertips so you can respond clearly and unemotionally. Walk away when they scream at you (because they will, because nobody likes having their power challenged, even if it’s imaginary power).
Once again, change is up to you, the citizen who takes responsibility for your own actions. Act. Rediscover your personal values and act on them.
Besides, who doesn’t like poking a few Karens and watching them go ballistic?
Come to the dark side…we have normal lives. And cookies.
Image by Daniel Reche from Pixabay
On the responsibility being on the vulnerable person to protect themselves– our daughter was born with a collapsed lung.
Our parish was *very* well set up when the Kung Flu came about, because I’d been doing everything I could to stop the public spread of germs since, what, Halloween?
We still got the kung flu, before the WHO even admitted it existed. (All fine, obviously.)
I have noted a pattern in folks who want us to all bend into pretzels because they’re scared– oh, I mean, SOMEONE who is VULNERABLE might get sick.
They’re the same folks who threw an abject fit at the idea that one should CONSIDER not going in to work, church, etc, while extremely sick– or that one of the best things we could do for public health would be to let parents keep their kids home at will if they thought they “might” have “something.” That’s it. Just a little parental freedom.
They also went freaking *ballistic* when, after the kung flu was admitted to, I pointed out that it is sensible to avoid crowds, especially ones that had been traveling.
(I am still boggled at how few had the first clue how common trips back to China are.)
Iowa is sensible. In theory, we had an in-door mask requirement for 2 weeks. It was mostly exceptions, and had no enforcement mechanisms, although it did mean a lot of folks stayed home.
It didn’t help anything, and we haven’t gone back.
They shipped in people to astro-turf our public meetings.
:very angry:
(The “my kid is vulnerable, so you must put yourself at risk for her” folks tend to very much dislike it when I speak up AFTER they’ve thrown down their ace card, because I state that they are the ones being irresponsible.)
I was just saying to a friend today that the whole “oh, no. I’m not skipping work for a mere cold” attitude and people coming in with freaking typhoid has got to stop. That’s what sick days are for. I get so pissed at people who take pride in never using a sick day. Thanks, pal. I used five of mine because you didn’t use any of yours!
But, to be fair to some folks, there are employers out there who don’t offer paid sick days. And then can’t figure out when the entire staff gets sick…
I’ve been going through cancer treatments for the last year. I am the very definition of high risk being over weight, diabetic, a family history of heart disease on both sides, and immunocompromised from my treatments. The only place I’ve had to wear a mask since last spring is the hospital. When I asked one of my oncologists when they were going to get rid of their mask mandate, he just shrugged and said, “It’s not my call. I don’t get a say in it.”
The idea that a cloth or paper mask is going to stop this airborne/aerosolized virus when they’ve never stopped one before in history is ludicrous. But then, science was thrown out the door from the very beginning. The only good thing to come out of all of this is it got people washing their hands more often.
I wondered where you were. I’m glad to see you back. Sending all good thoughts for a speedy recovery!
The hypocrites call him DeathSantis, but they’re now than happy to go to Florida and partake of freedom.
Just remember, rules are for thee, but not for me. We have a pecking order, almost complete with a social score.