I have not been shy about airing my irritation with and dissent from the ubiquitous Covid mindset and Grand Social Experiments visited upon society worldwide. In fact, most of the articles published on this blog over the last year have been related to that. Occasionally, I receive feedback from the opposition, to which I usually reply with a short and sharp rebuttal of the argument, along with a note that I will not respond to any further communication on their part.

Recently, I received a message from a man whom I will call DS. He contacted me through a website, Face of Freedom, which I had recently set up to stir people into action against the lockdowns and mask mandates. DS probably responded to a letter which I wrote to the Editor at the Ravalli Republic, although he did not specify where he found the website address. His irrational argument is indicative of the mentality that supporters of the State enforced actions exhibit. There is no logical reasoning here, but it is shot through and through with guilt-manipulation and emotional histrionics. (And bad spelling and grammar, but I choose to overlook that.)

“I have to ask you, Do you all have a problem wearing a shirt into a restaurant? Shoes? Do you even understand peoples health concerns? Do you even care? I have lost friends because of this pandemic, many sick, I CHOOSE to wear a mask for them? There have been several scientific studies that have indicated how many people could have been saved is people would have JUST taken common sense precautions. You site biblical passages, I wonder what Jesus would have done? I think he would have cared about his fellow man.”

I have to ask you. What does wearing a shirt into a restaurant have to do with wearing a face mask as “supposed protection” against the Corona virus? Ditto with shoes. Presumably, he meant the wearing of shoes into restaurants as well as shirts, but that is not what he said, to which I can only repeat the wisdom of my father. “I don’t know what you meant. I only know what you said.”

This is a non sequitur, bringing up something which is totally irrelevant to the argument in the feeble attempt to make a point and it shows the shallow and unthinking reaction of people like DS as concerns this topic.

Do I understand the health concerns of people? Of course, I do. Everyone is concerned about their own personal health as they should be, and if some choose to wear a face mask or to sequester themselves away from others because they think this will prevent them from getting sick and/or dying, then I wish them well. I grant them the right to choose their own method in combatting this “dread disease”, which has been proven over the last year to be on par with a normal flu season. Where DS and I part company is that he wants to force everyone to wear the “face-covering diaper” and to isolate themselves, regardless of the rights and desires of those who disagree with him. I grant him the freedom to choose for himself, but he is not willing to do that for me. And they call people like me selfish?

Do I even care? Do I care that people get sick and die? Of course, I do. I have experienced personal loss from sickness and death among family members, friends, and acquaintances and have felt the grief and pain which comes when such events occur. Death has always been a part of life and there is nothing different about that now. Do I even care? Who is DS to question that? Who made him judge over me?

Of all the friends he has lost (and my condolences to him), how many were afflicted with comorbidities like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, poor immune systems, etc. How many were physically inactive? How many lived on junk food? He does not say. How many of his friends would have died from something else if the Corona Monster had not ripped them from this life? My guess–every single one–because when the Grim Reaper taps you on the shoulder, you go. No matter what. Attempting to blame someone else for the deaths of those you love is foolish and irresponsible, especially when it cannot be conclusively proven that anyone else caused that death. This specious argument is simply assumed to be true. DS did get one thing right, though, he CHOOSES to wear a mask for them, which is fine as long as it is his own voluntary choice. I have no problem with that, but he really ought to quit trying to make others responsible because someone dies.

Scientific studies? Do not get me started. To advance this particular narrative, science has been thrown under the bus.

How many people could have been saved? According to a saying often (probably wrongly) attributed to Mark Twain, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. This question resonates on all three. From Wikipedia comes this comment,

“Lies, damned lies, and statistics” is a phrase describing the persuasive power of numbers, particularly the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments.

Weak arguments. I like that. Sometimes Wikipedia is very helpful.

Common sense precautions? Well, yes, that is sensible, but mandated, meaningless mask wearing, anti-social distancing, business closures, travel lockdowns, forced vaccinations of unproven materials, provoking mass hysteria and panic, throwing people out of work en masse, shuttering schools for no good reason, using faulty testing to prove a point, etc., etc., is not common sense at all. In fact, it is and was an incredibly stupid response to a virus which has been proven over and over again to be relatively normal as far as flu seasons go. The common sense precaution would have been to treat it as if it were just another flu (and been done with it). The irrational, hysterical, panic-driven approach to it would have been to throw the entire world into a tizzy, which is just exactly what happened. Common sense? I do not think so.

What would Jesus have done? Well, I am willing to bet that He would have spoken the truth about the whole matter without any equivocations as to feelings, emotional appeals, or fear. As to what He would say about bad science and damned statistics, I can only guess.

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim. 1:7, KJV)

I have to ask you. Which of these two opposing camps exhibits a spirit of fear?

I rest my case.