As with everything lately the great mask debate has become political. People are lining up on both sides of the aisle to ask two similar but completely different questions: Should you wear a mask in public? AND Should you be forced to wear a mask in public? Let’s discuss.
If you're reading this in the future we're talking about wearing a mask in public during the age of the Coronavirus.
“If an issue seems black and white you’re probably not asking the right questions.”- Mr. Burrito Bowl, scholar.
One question is fairly easy to answer.
Should you wear a mask in public?
Yes. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.
Unless you have some physical reason that you cannot wear a mask you’re kind of a bag of dicks for not wearing a mask while frequenting public spaces. If there is some physical reason you can’t wear a mask then you probably shouldn’t be out in public because you might die.
The amount of dicks shoved into the bag that would accurately describe the person not wearing a mask in public depends on several factors including, but not limited to, number of cases in the area and population density.
The next question is a lot more difficult to answer.
Should you be forced to wear a mask in public?
This question is why we’re here today. I often see the questions being conflated. Someone will say they are against a governor issuing a mask mandate and people will argue with them by saying “How dare you be so selfish as to not wear a mask.”
It looks like this…
But those are different issues. The guy holding the American flag isn’t saying he wouldn’t choose to wear a mask on his own, he’s just pointing out it’s unconstitutional for the governor to mandate such a policy.
In order to have a worthwhile debate, we need to agree on what we’re trying to disagree about. One side is making it about courtesy and respect for your fellow man, the other side is making it about constitutional rights. This happens a lot, btw.
Most of us already agree that wearing a mask in public is the nice thing to do.
There’s really no reason to debate that point anymore. The crux of the great mask debate happens over whether or not someone should be forced to wear a mask.
We have to understand what we mean when we say someone is forced to do anything. The only way for the government to force us to do something is by threatening to take away our property and/or freedom. Should the government be able to throw you in jail for not wearing a mask? Some say yes. Some say no.
If you think the word force is too dramatic it really isn’t. The government can issue you a citation for not wearing a mask but the only way for them to ultimately enforce that citation is to physically remove you from your home and place you in custody. Otherwise, people could just never pay their fines and there really isn’t anything the government could do about it.
This is true with everything from failure to pay taxes to failure to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. The stick the government has over the people is the threat of detainment.
Anytime we want the government to detain people for non-compliance we start down a very scary path.
Which brings us to an important question.
Which is more important: Public health and safety or personal liberty?
This should be a tough question to answer. Although wearing a mask isn’t THAT much of an infringement on personal liberty the infringement won’t necessarily always be that small. For many people, the whole mask thing comes down to principle.
Side Note: If you are in the my body my choice crowd when it comes to mask-wearing then you should be okay with businesses choosing to not let you in. Those who rail against businesses for not letting them come inside and claim it's somehow an attack on their personal liberty are idiots. If you want the personal freedom to not wear a mask others should have the personal freedom not to let you into their establishment.
Few things infuriate me more than watching people on Facebook talk about how they aren’t going to wear a mask and nobody can make them. Sigh. Covid-19 isn’t about just you. When you don’t wear a mask you put others at risk.
Should we be held liable if it turns out we infect someone?
That makes things more interesting. It would be hard to figure out who infected who but as a thought experiment it adds an interesting dynamic.
One problem is people who are choosing not to wear a mask know they won’t have to pay for any damage they cause. If they did have to pay, they’d probably be a lot more careful.
Personal freedom should go both ways. If you want personal freedom it means taking responsibility for your actions.
Part of me really likes this idea. If you’re wearing a mask, and still somehow infect someone, you’re not liable because you did everything you could to mitigate the risk. But, if you aren’t wearing a mask and it turns out you infect someone, then you are liable.
This might seem unfair but we do a similar thing in regards to driving. If you accidentally kill someone while driving you’re not necessarily criminally liable as long as you were following the rules of the road. If you’re drunk though, the situation changes.
As far as personal freedom goes I’m wary of the government stepping in and forcing anything on anyone.
I think seatbelts should be optional, drugs legalized, and we should be able to collect our own rainwater. Once the government takes freedom away they are hesitant to give it back.
Dying on the hill of I won’t wear a mask because the government can’t take away my personal freedom is weird because that ship has already sailed.
You ALREADY have to wear a seatbelt or you’ll get fined. You ALREADY have to pay a host of taxes or you’ll get thrown in jail and your property seized. Personal freedom is a little bit of a misnomer. We aren’t nearly as ‘free’ as we seem to imagine. Even if you own your house outright if you stop paying property taxes on it your house will get taken away.
The idea that being forced to wear a mask in public in order to protect yourself and, more importantly, those around you is somehow more of a slap in the face to personal freedom than being forced to wear a seatbelt or pay property taxes is silly.
It’s easy for me to line up on the Libertarian side of things. Legalize all drugs, stop taxing the hell out of the American people, shrink the government, let people choose how to live their lives.
People are stupid, though. Lots of people are very sure that 5G caused Coronavirus. Others are pretty sure the whole thing is a government hoax. Everything that’s inconvenient is fake news. You kind of have to force people like that to wear a mask because otherwise they just won’t.
In some situations, we’re all okay with our personal freedom being handcuffed.
These aren’t normal circumstances. I think there are situations where the government (whether state, local, or Federal) should be able to say “Do this, or else…” I’m just typically against such mandates.
Admittedly, this nuance does not come without complications. For instance, who gets to decide whether something is the type of issue that the government should have the power to threaten us if we don’t comply? I get where people are coming from who think the government should never have this power.
In principle, I’m against almost all government mandates. But in practicality, there are all sorts of things we agree not to do for the good of society.
We all agree that nobody should have the personal freedom to just drive on the opposite side of the road just because they feel like it.
And this is really where the debate should take place.
Is being forced to wear a mask more similar to being forced to drive on the right side of the road or is it more similar to being forced to wear a seatbelt? One law is necessary, one law is government overreach.
I would argue that the mask situation is much closer to forcing people to drive on the correct side of the road. I don’t like the government forcing things on us. But, I also want to know which side of the road oncoming traffic will be on.
There have to be social norms that everyone follows if we’re going to have a functioning society. Some percentage of people are going to refuse to follow social norms unless they have no other choice.
We either have to be okay with people driving on whichever side of the road they prefer or we have to be okay with the government stepping in and enforcing the social norm.
Both should scare us a little.
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The argument feels very theoretical, like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Because other than entering a store or restaurant there are no public spaces in rural America. I can run on the morning streets, no people no mask. I can go fishing, no mask. I can play tennis, adequate spacing no mask, and so on and so forth for all our outdoor pursuits.
Yeah, that’s basically the situation where we live. I think in everything there needs to be nuance. If nobody is around and it’s easy to stay away from other people there shouldn’t be just a blanket mask policy if you’re outside your home. If the population is dense enough that you can’t reasonably expect to avoid people then I’m more okay with a mask mandate.