First, the Masks

Against Mere Plausibility

“First they came for the Jews.”

We all repeat the poem, with reverence.

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me. 

Martin Niemöller, “First They Came for the Jews,” see alternative versions available.

Oh, we are so uplifted by this bit of rhetoric. Why, we would never do that! We would never cave to the Nazis! We are Americans! We are civilized!

Here is the deal: by complying with the mask orders, and censuring those who do not “comply” with same, you are doing what Niemöller said. You are, in effect, letting the Jews be taken away.

You protest, though: “The Nazis were wholly evil, but masks save lives!” Well, no, certainly the latter is not true. I can and have pointed to scientific studies that show the masks are ineffectual and even dangerous — and worse yet, constitute a deep psy-op that turns us into serviles, preparing us for a corporatist totalitarian agenda.

This should be obvious, the idea being to set up compliance regimens that allow States (it is quite clear in Australia right now) to eradicate freedom in the name of safety, to abridge freedom of speech and press and free association. The next step after refusing to allow people to purchase food without mask compliance is to refuse to allow us to travel and associate and purchase food without vaccination compliance — and then to add universal tracking on top of (or, more ominously, along with) that. This is not the spinning of some fanciful conspiracy scenario. The plans are openly touted. Bill Gates has argued for all of these things.

It is “just a coincidence” that these same people publicly worry about over-population and seek to diminish the world population by half. It is only a small step for them to turn a vaccine into the instrumentality of genocide. Thanos was a fictional supervillain; but our supervillains are quite real, many are out in the open and widely respected, and some of them are your friends.

That is why the canary in this particular coal mine is not “the Jews” today — or trans people or some much-touted minority — but the mask non-compliant.

If you side against the mask-less, you are no better than the Germans who let the Nazis take control. I am not kidding, nor am I exaggerating. Your protest that the Nazis’ case against the Jews was never this plausible is idiotically naïve. The Nazis indeed had a case. If you cannot make it, you fail to understand history and, alas, only understand the “straw man” case for freedom. The Nazis had a plausible case and it convinced the Germans, yet they were wrong and they succumbed to grave evil.

So, do not pretend that a case for totalitarianism cannot be made. There is of course a plausible case for mandatory masks. But it is wrong. Just like the Nazis were wrong. The pretense these days is that the enemies of justice do not have a case. Deny, rather than argue. This is intellectual cowardice, and is the vice of people who prefer herdish belief to actual thinking.

Liberty possesses a logic that resists the “plausible” sounding rationalizations of medical totalitarians, or any other kind of totalitarian.

The proper step is to resist totalitarian controls. It is not enough to vote out the vile governors of our states (Inslee in mine). And we must do more than bring lawsuits against the government. We must now be civilly disobedient. Stop wearing the masks, at least if you are young and healthy.

If you go about complying, the next level of control will ratchet up, as will the next after that, and there will be no stopping it.

First, they demanded masks.

twv