Peter Hitchens
[Editor’s note: This study was done in the context of dentists and the desirability of their wearing face masks in 2016. It therefore has not been affected by the politics of the Coronavirus phenomenon and deserves to be respected for its objectivity and balance.]
When this madness began, I behaved as if a new and fanatical religion was spreading among us. Be polite and tolerant, I thought. It may be crazy and damaging but in time it will go away.
Now it is clear that a new faith, based on fear of the invisible and quite immune to reason, has all but taken over the country. And it turns out to be one of those faiths that doesn’t have much tolerance for those who don’t share it.
My guess is that about 85 per cent of the population now worship it and will continue to do so. The rest of us are, as each day goes by, a persecuted minority, forced to go along with beliefs we do not hold.
Its evangelists will not leave you and me alone, but constantly seek to force us to join. This is why I make such a fuss about the demand to make us all wear muzzles. This is not about health.
There is simply not enough evidence to compel us to do so. It is an attempt to force submission on Covid unbelievers.
That is why it spreads, despite the absence of any good case for it. In a creepy development, one of the most powerful scientific papers arguing against it, Why Face Masks Don’t Work: A Revealing Review, last week suddenly vanished from its usual place on the internet (I still have a copy and you may read it here;
Scotland’s tinpot despot, Nicola Sturgeon, now demands that muzzles are worn in shops, as well as on public transport, north of the border.
In Texas, of all states, the governor seeks to make muzzles compulsory in all public places. The tiny-circulation Guardian newspaper, which just so happens to be the house journal of the BBC, absurdly compares muzzles to seat belts (proven a million times to save lives, beyond any doubt) and demands in its main editorial ‘Cover your face’.
The BBC is then careful to report this prominently. Do not be surprised if the Government soon follows. Yet, as the Government’s own documents and experts have repeatedly said, evidence for the usefulness of these muzzles is weak. The Department for Business and Enterprise says clearly: ‘The evidence of the benefit of using a face covering to protect others is weak and the effect is likely to be small.’
This obsession with telling us how to look, and turning us from normal humans into submissive, mouthless flock animals all decked out in a compulsory uniform is, in my view, part of an unprecedented assault on our personal liberty in general. Stay at home. Stop working. Don’t see your friends or relatives. Submit, submit, submit. Get used to being told what to do.
And we do it. I have begun to understand why the atrocious drivel of Fifty Shades Of Grey was so popular. It seems we really have become a nation of surrendered masochists.
The decision to force poor Leicester back into the misery of total shutdown is an example of this. Craziest of all is the closure of schools in that city, when school-age children are barely touched by Covid.
This must make plans to reopen schools in September even less likely to come true. Does the Government think the education unions won’t notice this panic-driven act and use it to keep the schools shut? Of course they will.
I am pretty sure this has been done not because it’s necessary but because the hysterical would-be headmaster Matt Hancock wants to keep us under his thumb. Behave, he shrills, or the tuck shop stays closed. Leicester is like the poor boys who were caned by such headmasters to set an example to the rest.
In this he is backed up by the increasingly uncuddly Premier Al Johnson, who hawks the myth that all these deprivations have reduced the incidence of the disease. ‘Do not undo the sacrifices you have made with reckless behaviour,’ says the man who has recklessly destroyed our economy and is clueless about how to rescue it from himself.
The truth is there is still not one eighth of an ounce of evidence that crashing the economy and keeping us all at home saved a single life. Let us examine the case for this punitive closure of Leicester.
First of all, there are these things called ‘infections’ which sound quite nasty. But what are they? How many of those who test positive for Covid-19 (in a test that is highly dubious) have no symptoms? The Government could not tell me.
I suspect only a tiny proportion are seriously ill. As I keep saying, for most people the disease is a minor event. It is not the plague.
Then there is the simple question: Are there more infections because we are looking harder for them? Well, I can tell you this. I asked for a list of testing stations in Leicester and the dates on which they opened. One opened on May 1. All the others – seven of them – have opened since June 18, the very period during which the supposed surge has taken place.
Here is my question to Public Health England posed on Tuesday 30th June:
‘If the number of testing centres has increased in Leicester, can you please give the dates on which it did so?’
And here is the answer I received on Friday:
‘1 May: Birstall Regional Testing site opens, following a pilot from 30th April.
18th June: Evington testing site opens –mobile testing unit
20th June: Saffron testing site opens –mobile testing unit
21st June: Spinney Hill testing site opens – mobile testing unit
25th June: Victoria Park opens –mobile testing unit
27th June: Second site at Spinney Hill opens mobile testing unit
30th June: Highfield centre site opens – walk-through testing site
1st July: Prajapti site opens –mobile testing unit’
Note that all but one of the eight was opened only after 18th June.
It is, in any case, absurd to imagine that the people of Leicester can be confined in their city and prevented from venturing into nearby towns and villages to take advantage of the limited freedoms now being restored to us (such as they are).
Even the petulant, petty Mr Hancock is not going to confine Leicester in a ring of steel, as if it were East Berlin in 1961 (though he may dream of such actions).
This is about power and freedom, and has less and less to do with Covid-19. Soon, as the terrible economic consequences of Mr Johnson begin to become clear to all, this may be a lot more important.
The latest crime? Making a cup of tea
Many in the media treat this period as a bit of a joke, a light-hearted interlude and a spectator sport, like a holiday or a foreign crisis seen from afar.
I don’t. It scares me stiff. I think something has gone wrong deep inside the workings of this country. A fire long smouldering below decks has now burst into the open.
Let me share a letter I received from a reader:
‘I run a small coffee shop and when the state decreed, I reopened for takeaway (I was ‘allowed’ also by the local council to use a small area outside my premises for people to sit down and drink their takeaways). Occasionally, when the weather has been bad or someone with an infirmity hasn’t been able to take their drink away, I have let them sit inside.
‘This morning I was visited by the police and warned. I was informed that two complaints had been made against me for serving drinks inside the premises. All for making someone a cup of tea and being human enough to let them have it inside. Last year my business was burgled and trashed and drug dealing was going on in the park that my business overlooks. And what happened then? Absolutely nothing. This isn’t the kind of country that my grandfather fought to preserve.’
At the same time, the political cleansing of our schools and universities continues ferociously. I hear confidentially of heavyweight intolerance of conservatives at Oxford, who have objected to the planned removal of the Cecil Rhodes statue there. Now I receive this from another university, where all academics have been ‘invited’ to an online ‘discussion’ intended to ‘disrupt structural factors that produce white privilege and systemic disadvantage…
‘We invite all staff to reflect on their identities and social positions, taking an ‘intersectional’ approach. Participants will be given an opportunity to share perspectives and experiences of institutional racism at work, including any recommendations for change, with the University’s senior academic leadership team.’
I wouldn’t give much for the future careers of anybody who does not kowtow to this inquisition.
The lockdown in this scamdemic is the type of thing that happens to incorrigible inmates in Prisons. They are sent to solitary lockup as ………..punishment. The hope is that these inmates will learn to behave.
This current 2020 Lockdown is nothing but punishment, punishment and more punishment. Wear those masks in public and be a good little rule following inmate.
The far left’s goal is to dehumanize human beings. Once that is done, they can overtake any government.
Read Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto.
Thank you, president Trump for Operation Warp Speed. I feel SO much safer now that you are all in on the Gates from Hell bandwagon. But if anyone comes to stick me against my will, I will shoot…and it will not be with a syringe!
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/operation-warp-speed-awards-novavax-16-billion-covid-vaccine
From my observations I notice that people who wear masks are people who like to follow rules. The do-nots are people like me. We challenge any absurd requirement and only do it when we are forced to follow.
There has never been any scientific study that a face mask is effective, they leak like crazy. Anecdotal evidence shows that mask wearing in a surgical or dental situation makes common sense.
In the many decades of my life before the AIDS panic, not one dentist ever wore gloves working on me….not even one time. Since 1985 ALL dentistry is done with gloves. Now they even use full face plastic protection.
Good for you, Don…I feel the same….BUT, from this statement, “We challenge any absurd requirement and only do it when we are forced to follow.”…I ask this…..
How would they possibly force us to do what we do not wish to do?
Well Will, my bank and grocery store will not allow anyone to enter without a face covering.
The last time at my bank I called the Assist. Mgr an ”idiot” to his face 3 times [this was not about masks though]. As I left he snarled at me “have a nice day”.
Just out of curiosity, what store is it? AND, can you shop at another store? No stores here require masks….at least, not yet….and when and if they do, I will wear a Guy Fawkes mask. I am not saying it’s your fault, Don…I just think the more of us refuse, the more power we will have. You can also sue once you tell them you have a condition that does not allow you top wear a mask…ADA and all that….and they CANNOT inquire as to what that condition may be. My condition is I am a human that requires OXYGEN to breathe. Under no circumstances can they force you to endanger your own life.
It’s about to get much worse: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/anti-mask-costco-and-target-shoppers-throw-tantrums-viral-videos-2020-7-1029369719
I believe violence leads to more violence BLM has certainly demonstrated that. BUT, I am not against refusing to wear a mask and daring them to eject me…in which case a future suit would be feasible. I can understand their frustration, but destruction just exacerbates any situation. One could ask to see the manager and demand to see the policy …anything to throw a wrench into the mask nonsense.
If no stores in the area allow you to enter without a mask, I see a huge case because they are keeping you from eating….forced starvation.
None of this crap goes on here in north Florida….maybe because it’s a rural farm area…I have no clue.
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> Watch the Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOgsWAfIaiI&feature=youtu.be
>ME….I changed “person” to man or woman and being where appropriate.
> The Universal Declaration of the Individual
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> When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a man or woman to dissolve the political bands which have chained them in subservience to a non-consensual government and to assume among their fellow humans, the separate and equal station to which their self-ownership entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to the separation.
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> I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all rational beings are created equal, whether endowed by nature or their creator, they possess free will, the ability to conceptualize and actualize a preferred state, and a capacity for agency, self-determination, and reciprocity. A respect for which requires mutual agreement to hold one’s consent sacrosanct and inviolate. — That from this respect flow unalienable rights, among which are Life, Liberty, and Self Ownership. — That to secure these rights, no government, no person or group of people which violate the consent of another, may be suffered to exist. — That whenever any such entity becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Person to withdraw their consent, defend against, and abolish it.
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> Mankind’s ability to suffer injustice, seemingly infinite when faced with danger, nourishes well these governments that stand to attack me for mine own safety. Their centuries-long histories of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably more involuntary power evinces their true nature of absolute despotism. It is my right to throw off such government, to choose to suffer their evils no longer, and to provide new guards for my future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of myself; and such is now the necessity which constrains me to abolish their former systems of involuntary government. The history of these governments is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over me and my property. In evidence of this, let the following Facts be submitted to a candid world; that some of the tyrannical evils I have suffered under be known to all:
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> They have forbidden me to freely and peacefully associate with and disassociate from other humans of my choosing in whatever means I deem appropriate, both in business and matrimony.
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> They have ignored and trampled down my consent on all matters in which I may find myself the minority or the sole dissenter; affording no capacity to opt not be a part of their edicts.
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> They, absent any existing victim, as a matter of course, threaten, accost, extort, rob, injure, and even murder innocent humans where no damaged party is to be found.
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> They, in the name of protecting children, do frequently intrude on their childhoods and even kidnap them from their parents and homes without severe cause, giving them to strangers, and leaving little recourse to their rightful caretakers.
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> They have twisted the good nature of the very people capable of helping others by conducting mass extortion upon the productive, and claiming to do so in those victims’ names. Their “welfare” uses the resources of some to buy political power from others while actually helping very few; all in violation of individual consent.
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> They, on pain of loss of livelihood, force involuntary association between myself and those that would employ me, those that would be employed by me, and those that would form unions, or choose to remain free agents. This intolerable force, they make a matter of course for employment relationships.
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> They, being unsatisfied in their tyranny here where I live, march around the globe grinding up human life as if it were valueless, their militaries creating new enemies that hate me instead of them, and then in the ultimate insult claim that all they do is for my safety and freedom.
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> They, having the hubris to place upon me rules regarding certain peaceful actions and property, make “sins” out of them; punishing, robbing, caging, and even murdering any who dare defy their improper fiat. Their every prohibition without a victim, every ban without damaged property; all infringements upon the right of one to own oneself.
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> They, through the extortion that they name taxation, have so thoroughly forcefully interfered in every single peaceful interaction and transaction taken through the course of time that proper restitution has become utterly incalculable, the damages and the criminal violations of sovereignty nearing infinite. My mere existence indebts me to no one.
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> They, unable to be other than despotic, falsely claim rightful control over my ability to peacefully travel the world. They will attack me for attempting to do so without their permission or for using means outside their approved channels.
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> They forcefully prevent me from obtaining security, safety, and protection outside their monopoly of abusive and dangerous law enforcers.
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> They establish rules by fiat that control my trade associations with those outside arbitrary lines on a map and euphemize and reframe theft as “tariffs”.
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> They have captured and do wrongfully control things so intimate in their nature so as to boggle the mind. The education of our very own children isn’t even free from or safe from their violent intrusions and forced oversight.
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> They, having no self-restraint or decency, have a list of substances for which, if I peacefully place inside or around my being, they will attack, rob, cage, or murder me. To add insult to vicious injury, the law enforcers that mete out these inhumane punishments are touted as heroes.
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> Touting self-proclaimed higher purposes, they routinely, in the open and without remorse, do capture and steal the property of peaceful people in the name of community through euphemisms for evil they call “eminent domain” and “asset forfeiture”.
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> Through controls upon the very earth itself, they have managed little other than the plundering of the seas, the ravaging of the coasts, the destruction of the forests, and, while proclaiming their unending intentions to the opposite, the continued defiling of the very air we breathe. While failing to achieve their stated goals they have retarded the progress that free commerce and innovation offer peaceful individuals.
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> They, so detailed in their control over my life, rob and attack me for using my own resources to create structures on my own property without submitting to their approval, to their snake’s nest of rules for how it should be done, and paying those they force to license themselves to inspect my work once it is done.
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> They listen to my private conversations, they spy on my private communications, they hijack devices I own without limit or recourse. My expectation of privacy is completely disregarded.
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> They capture entire professions such that I cannot obtain vital services of doctors, lawyers, professors, electricians, plumbers, optometrists — or even that as simple as a barber — that does not bow before licensing, review, and controlling boards of the government, interfering constantly in what should be unfettered and unbiased opinions and labor I wish to pay for.
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> Finally, even their system for resolving disputes about their laws and their accusations of crimes is an utter failure by any measure. Justice is far too expensive and even when properly funded still rarely found. They use threats of extreme punishment to bargain for fast capitulations admitting even false guilt. Worse still, while preventing me from choosing another system of justice, theirs grants de facto immunity to their own agents, law enforcers, politicians, and other friends of the court, even when they stand accused of the most heinous crimes against humanity, murder and rape are no exception.
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> In every stage of these Oppressions I have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; My repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A ruler, by definition, may find no free people under their rule, and no government lacking my consent is fit nor just in their power.
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>
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> Nor have I been wanting in attentions to those that still support this government. I have informed them that their control violates my consent. I have warned them that their legislature bears no rightful jurisdiction over me. I have reminded them of the nature of my freedom and right to exist without violent controls being placed upon me. I have appealed to their sense of justice and magnanimity, and I have begged them to exempt me from their usurpations, without demanding that they disband their own way of conducting themselves, which constantly interfere in my connections and associations. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. I must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces my separation, and hold them, as I hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
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> I, therefore, being the sole proprietor of my mind and body, appealing to the rational minds of the world for the rectitude of my intentions, do, in my name, and by my sovereign authority, solemnly publish and declare, that this being is, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent, that I am absolved of all allegiance to this government and any other involuntary system or structure of control and regulation, and that all political connection between myself and the state, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a Free and Independent man or woman, I have full Power to protect myself using necessary means, contract with others, establish commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which an Independent man or woman may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, I agree and pledge that by my Life, my Fortune, and my Sacred Honor I will hold sacrosanct the agency, consent, and property of others, likewise expecting, requiring, and demanding the same be afforded me.
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> I Own Myself.
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> I Lead Myself.
There is a strong temptation to fear even with the strongest logic operating in one’s worldview.
It’s about TRUTH folks.
My only fear is that at some point, through some magic, I start to believe anything they tell us.
Get ready for lockdown 2.0 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyh4S6qyNH0
IF you believe covid exists (I do not), here’s your cure AND some real figures and WHY certain countries (Japan, Taiwan et al) have very, very few deaths….SO, Mr. Gates from Hell and the Rat Fauci, stuff your vaccines and stuff your fear mongering.
https://153news.net/watch_video.php?v=DW17519OBKGB
Peter Hitchens shrewdly characterizes what is truly wrong with Americans. No amount of gullibility is too much. We learned in high school that one needs to cite references while writing, but Americans are perfectly OK when reading the pablum puke that issues forth from Imperator Governors scattered through the country. Too often, our governor does things because he “has a hunch”. Our state epidemiologist is laggard when he, too,fails to quote peer reviewed references that are used by the governor to concoct his hunches. You don’t hear much if any optimism from the MSM blattermouths, the only time you hear something that could be somewhat uplifting comes with a caveat. “We won’t have normal life in the US until we have a wonderful vaccine”. Forget the fact coronaviruses have beriddled vaccine scientists for the better part of 15 years of fruitless development work. Why so long? This family of viruses cannot lead to lasting immunities, ever hear of a vaccine for the common coronavirus colds? Still, wild promises are made, “we’ll have us a sweet vaccine if only you patient, wonderful people can hold on”. Our gutless governors have wrecked economies, imagine them getting reelected and taking the reins over economies they destroyed. Too many of these schlubs have let power get to them,they think they are Caesar. Caesar, poor boy, met his doom on the steps of the Senate. He, like many governors, thought he was invincible. Now is the time to get vindictive toward these governor kingpins. They wrecked our lives, our economies, and are totally ambivalent for what they have done. It’s time to get ’em out of office.
What’s wrong with Americans is that the mainstream media, social media, intelligence agencies, and entertainment and other key industries are controlled by a small group of people known as the Bilderbergers/Trialateralists. They control most of both major political parties–only a certain segment of the GOP under the direction of President Trump has now (seemingly) revolted against their tyranny. Greg Abbott in Texas might appear to be conservative but he is actually a clone of the Bushes, who for generations have been some of the highest priests of the Bilderbergers. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s forcing people to wear masks, which are pretty much useless except as muzzles. The sad thing is that people in most states can still vote freely, but they do not know whom to really trust. How many politicians have actually come out against the Bulderbergers and official narratives? Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney questioned 911 but they were redistricted out of office. Ron Paul was gotten rid of. Trump has made veiled comments about 911, but even he can only go so far. But, Trump is the best hope for keeping us from the abyss, and we need to make sure everyone we know who’s on the fence votes for him in November.
James McCanney
9:55 AM (5 hours ago)
to me
I taught Logic at the University level. There once was a time when logic not fear ruled the rational world. But with modern education and fear porn news, logic no longer exists. The LOGIC of using face masks is similar to that of vaccinations and every other fear … If you have your “mask/vaccination/covid19 vaccination/don’t have sex because you think it will cause pimples/put here your favorite fear” then you should be self protected so why are you making me succumb to your fear and make me put a “mask/vaccination/covid19 vaccination/not have sex because you think it causes pimples/ put here your favorite fear”
Hey Jim… Anyone shaming you for not wearing a slave muzzle, just pull out a large crucifix to repel them like the old vampire movies. A few days ago, we guided a group of 32 people on a scene float on the Colorado River. One family had three young boys all clad in face masks and so were the parents. In fact most all the people showed up wearing masks. I told them to lose the masks I was certainly not requiring them. The Family and several other young people kept there’s on. I just wanted to shout Wake Up… it’s July… are you outta’ your ever lovin’ minds!?!?. Children are not affected at all by the Kung Flu and what the parents are doing to protect their kids is traumatizing them and damaging their brains. The test with a OSHA air monitor and analyzer showed the oxygen dropped 3% as soon as a mask is deployed. If you look up the chart of oxygen and altitude, at sea level it’s 20.9%. The Oxygen level where I picked them up was 15.4%… so they were breathing 12.4 % equivalent to standing on our highest peaks of over 14,000 feet. Eagle County is requiring face masks every where and it is nothing short of dangerous to your health requiring masks of workers doing manual labor for 8 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMrOxPTpbC
Video unavailable
wow that video was working when I cut and pasted the address!