As news broke across Twitter yesterday of the revised CDC Guidelines regarding the use of masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, many leftists on Twitter immediately rebuked the CDC’s decision as rash and too soon, virtue-signaling their care for others.

i’m fully vaccinated but ima still wear my mask bc ion want people to think i’m a republican.

— lonely boy (@nanc3rs) April 27, 2021

the fun thing is that even tho i am fully vaccinated and the cdc said that means i don’t have to wear a mask outside i am Still Going To Be because other peoples peace of mind and safety is more important to me than a piece of fabric thanks

— kaileigh (@kaicfox) April 28, 2021

Honestly tho I’m still going to continue to wear a mask and set a precedent. https://t.co/tO5mo5Y0An

— Jimmy Wong (@jfwong) April 27, 2021

People ask won't I be relieved when I'm vaccinated and won't have to wear a mask anymore, but I'm still going to wear a mask until everyone is safe to make others feel more comfortable and I want to contribute to mask culture as a general safety practice.

Plus I have cool masks. pic.twitter.com/K1AQ55vkox

— Clara Sia 🍜 (@seriouslyclara) April 27, 2021

These maskholes are attempting to guilt people into wearing a mask. Despite numerous “orders” (CDC, State, County) I have not worn a mask outdoors, at all, since June of last year. Recently, while at the gas station, a man approached me demanding I put on a mask to protect everyone else around me.  I asked him why he felt that he could enter my 6 feet of social distancing space to get in my face, asking me to put on a mask while outdoors. Infuriated, he squawked about how I just wanted to kill people and I didn’t care for anyone else around me. To him, I was right up there with Mussolini. He went further to say that the majority of the problems we were having were because people won’t mask up.

Enter science and data.

I asked him if that were the case, why didn’t Florida have the most per-capita cases in the country?  Dumbfounded, he said that “thousands” were dying from exposure in Florida still. (No, they aren’t.) He insisted that the states with the worst numbers for COVID were Republican-run states.   I then asked him which of the states had the worst numbers.  “SOUTH DAKOTA!” he screamed in my face.  “They don’t have a mask mandate and they have more deaths by population than any other state.”

Knowing that was factually inaccurate, I asked him how much he was willing to bet that South Dakota wasn’t even in the top five of worst states.  Practically having a stroke by this point, my maskhole sparring partner told me that South Dakota was one of the top states in the country, even when not factoring for the population.  “They are either first or second in deaths per capita,” he asserted.  Due to this amazing invention called the internet, I pulled up World-o-Meter’s COVID-19 statistics on my phone and read them out loud to him.  Sorting the data by deaths per million population, it showed that the top 3 were all blue states.  I showed him on my phone that not only did South Dakota not make the top five, it barely made the top 10, coming in tenth per capita, and 41st in the nation for overall deaths.  As I continued to show him this data, he was now standing right next to me reading my phone.  “See!” he continued, “it is because they don’t have a mask mandate.”

Yet when I asked him why of the top 10, the top 9 all had mask mandates, he pivoted to the final argument:

“I get what those numbers say, but I am still going to wear a mask to help other people feel more comfortable.”

The trap was sprung.

He knew at that moment he had screwed up. Mask-mandates do nothing to stop the spread of COVID-19, full-stop. The data shows it, the numbers coming out of these states show it, and any state that has lifted their mask-mandates has not seen an increase in cases or deaths (aside from the predicted second wave) after the action was taken.  Masks are worthless, aside from the performative relief it provides certain people.  If you are fully vaccinated (that is, two weeks after the second shot), you have even less of a reason to wear a mask. (.04% of all vaccinated people got COVID-19 during the Pfizer trial) This isn’t a directive that people should ignore mask-mandates on private property, rather it is an argument against government forced mask-mandates.

Maskholes don’t realize that literally, no one is stopping them from wearing a mask if they so desire.  This maskhole who attacked me for not wearing a mask, outside, in the sun, while fully vaccinated, thinks that for him to be protected, I have to change something about my lifestyle to make him more comfortable.  And here’s the point:  They choose to do so, absent a government mandate.  When confronted with the data that shows mandates do not affect the spread, they retreat to some ivory tower of judgment to suggest that your own desire to not wear a mask is somehow indicative of your lack of caring for others.  They know they are wrong yet they continue on their inquisition to convert everyone to their point of view.  Hey, more power to them and anyone who may decide to join their masked cause.  Again, they did so based upon their own choice and not because government made it for them.  If wearing a mask makes you feel more comfortable, the government doesn’t need to tell you to do it.

It is the basis for 95% of my arguments.  Government is a failure at every turn.  More government control almost exclusively ends with disaster.  People say that government is here to protect us.  The truth of it is, government is here to protect itself and expand its own tentacles of control into anything into which it can.  Government inherently grows.  No government has ever willfully retracted power it has asserted.  As Ronald Reagan said, “There’s nothing more permanent than a temporary government program.”

As for my maskhole friend?  He decided to excuse himself from the conversation to drive off, alone, masked in his car.  Yup, real brain trust there. As for social distancing guidelines?  I can’t stand most people, so I choose to maintain my 6 feet.