I posted the following on Twitter the other night, shortly before bed.
I didn’t think much of it — I post my thoughts about the pandemic and the response to it all the time. I was about to sign off but I could see the post was blowing up because usually the engagement trickles in, and this was pouring in. So I stayed up to engage in some back and forth.
You can never tell in advance why a post connects with (or bothers) a lot of people. Virality is hard to predict. But the sentiment — that compliance to arbitrary rules, irrespective of purpose or efficacy, is frightening, given 20th century history and human nature — struck a chord. I added a second Tweet:
I know there’s a mask vs no-mask divide politically in the US, but I don’t get involved in it, and I don’t root for political parties like I do the Yankees and Giants. My political views can best be summed up by the Lord Acton quote: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” with the solution being smaller, more local governments that have some power but which are also accountable to citizens who hold most of the power. To the extent a Federal government is necessary, have it to the greatest extent possible embrace the Hippocratic Oath: “First, do no harm.” The Bill of Rights in the Constitution, placing limits on the Federal Government’s power over its citizens is the best embodiment of that principle I know.
But as I said, I’m not here for Team Mask or Team Anti-Mask. My sentiment wasn’t about masks per se, but about their function as signaling mechanisms outdoors where the virus does not appear to spread, as long as people are not packed closely together. The tweet was not a substantive debate about the science, either. I believe the science shows the virus is not transmissible outdoors, but if you disagree, then that’s a different debate. The tweet was assuming we agree on the science on outdoor spread, why then would someone outdoors wear a mask? And my answer was to comply, to signal goodness, to show others you are not harmful, to make others feel more comfortable, to be an obedient citizen in the eyes of the state. In fact, the first line of it the Tweet was referring to those who wear masks outdoors even though they agree the science deems it unnecessary “to make others feel comfortable.”
I wanted people to know that while following arbitrary rules rather than the scientific evidence to appease others might make some feel comfortable, it makes me uncomfortable. Whereas in February of 2020 the tail risk of going to rock concerts and partying in large groups was the spread of deadly virus, the tail risk of masking outdoors to signal to others is totalitarianism. That does not mean I believe the US will become Nazi Germany or even Stalinist Russia imminently. A tail risk is something that is still unlikely, yet possible, that has devastating consequences. The point of the tweet — which many seemed to grasp — was I see tail risk in outdoor masking behavior among those who agree it’s unnecessary for public health purposes.
Okay, that explanation was probably too long, and most people grasped it from the tweets themselves, but just in case there was confusion, hopefully there is no longer any.
It was Twitter, and the post had blown up — at least by my standards — so there were people who disagreed and tried to dunk on me. I don’t appreciate that, but it goes with the territory, and I did say it feels like the mask compliers would follow orders to burn me at the stake. So those who comply for reasons of goodness (signaling, not safety as I was not addressing that question) could understandably be annoyed. Here they are trying to be good, and I’m comparing them to an enraged mob, capable of burning witches for heresy. Of course, I didn’t call out anyone by name, just expressed my feeling about the compliance impulse, what it means and what it could lead to, based on relatively recent history. I think it’s a real tail risk, and people should be wary of it.
So I had a back and forth with a couple, some expressing earnest disagreement with whom I engaged, and others trying to dunk on me whom I mocked. It’s words on Twitter, and I’m a grown-up. No big deal. Maybe it would turn out I’m just being paranoid, a relic of growing up Jewish in the 1970s and 80s when the Holocaust was still fresh enough in the minds of the older generation, where they often seemed to think another one was coming, and it was just a matter of time. I rejected that kind of thinking for most of my life, but maybe it made an imprint that puts me on higher alert than most. Or maybe it has nothing to do with that, and I’m attuned to the dangers of baseless compliance for some other reason. Either way, had this blown over, and a few people mocked me and moved on, maybe I’d have been disabused of my worries somewhat.
But in fact the opposite happened. It wasn’t enough to mute, block, unfollow or argue with me. Some people, who I don’t know personally, don’t engage with and don’t follow, decided my concerns over unnecessary masking as signaling rather than for purposes of public health were grave threats to human life. Accordingly, these good and empathetic people not only argued with me, they found my business partner and tried to persuade him my dangerous tweets were a reflection on the business itself. They were trying to harm me and my family in real life (economically) over a Twitter disagreement. Now what might have been paranoia started to feel more like reality.
This might sound dramatic to some — yeah, it’s bad behavior going after someone’s livelihood, but they failed, and now I’m making a huge deal out of it. That’s true, I am. But that’s because once you understand the mentality of someone who would harm you and your family over a tweet that wasn’t directed at them personally or disparaging any vulnerable group, you realize you’re dealing with something sick and dangerous. I don’t want people like that threatening me or others, and so I’m not going to let it lie like most people who decide it’s not worth the hassle and aggravation.
To understand the mentality, I felt this exchange was helpful:
They have allowed themselves to believe that my tweet is endangering lives. Wrongthink, i.e., information with which they disagree, is not only off base, something to be debunked and argued with, but deadly. What would you be justified — perhaps even obligated — to do to someone if they were killing people? Going after their job is actually quite mild in such a scenario. If you believe my words are deadly, you need to shut me up any way you can. Prison, some sort of work camp, maybe? After all, I’m a killer on the loose.
This is not hyperbole, unfortunately. These people actually believe my words — questioning outdoor mask wearing as a signal when the science seems not to support it — are “destroying another person’s actual life.” And the tweet quoted above is not an isolated one. It’s representative of many responses I got from that group. Words are deadly, according to them.
The irony was my original tweet was intended hyperbolically — I didn’t think these extreme compliers would literally burn me at the stake — the statement was a simile written in the subjunctive tense — but if anything it seems less so now.
My first instinct in these situations is to debate people, explain to them why it’s absurd to equate my tweets with killing people and how it is not up to them to determine what beliefs are allowed and which are not. But this has largely proven fruitless — they believe they are right, and I am dangerous and evil, and so it is not an actual weighing of competing arguments and ideas but a signaling-fest. I cannot deter them from coming after me or others who post information or opinions one Planck length outside the permissible window (my tweet regarding outdoor masking is probably even inside that window!) I cannot convince them that policing dissent destroys the public square and makes for an oppressive and creatively-stifling environment. It doesn’t work because they’re not interested.
That leaves me with two options: (1) Ignore, be careful of what I say or have to deal with the same problem all over again; or (2) Push back. I’m pushing back. You can try to smear or slander me, but it’ll come at a cost. If you persist, the cost will go up. I’m only one person, but I am resourceful and determined, and I will make sure your aggression against me and others is a losing effort. That your mission to police the discourse according to your arbitrary parameters fails, and you are remembered accordingly. While I am only one person, I trust that many, many people — in fact, I know it from my DMs and replies — agree with me and are disgusted with your behavior. They are sick of being censored and bullied and threatened with economic harm when they have an idea that doesn’t comport with the allowed narrative. Those days are over. The tide has turned, whether people realize it or not. I will do my part to make sure of it.
What interested me most here is the introspection about the root of your anxiety and why you fear a sheeplike compliant populace. No doubt that exists and can be exploited.
However, I live with a sort of mirror image fear: the growing number of people who have entirely lost the concept of participation in public, communal life. These are the folks who mistakenly conflate unfettered self-interest with freedom. People for whom the very concept of public good is some kind of pussy, left-wing fairytale.
Five decades of right-wing drum beat on the evils of big government has eroded the very concept of good government and citizenship and left us with a wide swath of people who really believe that liberty means being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want regardless of its impart on others or the society at large.
I own two grocery stores, so my pandemic experience was impacted much more by non-compliant maskers and a constant battle that at times was fueled by politics. I have been verbally abused and physically threatened.
My fear is that it is not compliance that leads to a soviet style think police and a tyranny of the majority and cancel culture. My fear is that civic duty, inclusiveness, collective good, in my mind, the real heart of America, is being replaced by an ideological America that worships self-interest as the highest good.
To me, this is the worm from which a Facist, totalitarian state grows. These people are just waiting for a leader to promise them what they want and there is nothing and nobody they won’t destroy in defense of “the real America.”
American media gets our dumb asses to fall in line with the Chinese Social Credit System and the government does not even have to get involved. I appreciate your voice.