No, it's not a joke! We are now officially being told to always wear TWO face coverings. Here's my response, in pictorial form:
We know that one mask is like trying to stop mosquitoes with a chain link fence. Two chain link fences have as much chance at stopping mosquitoes as two cloth masks have at stopping viruses. Almost none.
Let's make it 3!
Yes, again, I have to remind you that I'm not kidding. This is not satire. CNBC is now telling the masses to consider TRIPLE masking!
Even if that's really stopping 90% of the viruses, you're letting 10% of them - billions - right on through. How many does it take to cause infection?
Better ideas?
Don't cover your face at all. Don't affix warm moist cloth against your oral and nasal openings - that's inviting bacterial respiratory infections (which are currently on the rise). Don't obstruct your vision. Improve your immune system with fresh air, sunlight, and vitamins C, D, and Zinc. Don't block communication with others. Use facial expressions. Don't scare babies. Get enough oxygen to your brain. Reduce stress. Get enough sleep. And stop submitting to authorities that don't care about you.
What is Gaslighting?
To help understand what's going on here, I want to provide a quick review on what gaslighting is and how we might protect ourselves against it.
Gaslighting is a type of manipulation (psychological and social influence) which causes the victims to doubt their perceptions, memory, judgment, and/or sanity. Over time this leads to breakdown of self-esteem, performance, and health, making the victim more vulnerable on the attacker. Denial, shaming, disparaging the victim in front of others, contradictory statements, and misinformation are some methods use to destabilize the target and discredit their beliefs. The abuser often denies past abuse has occurred, confusing and demoralizing the victim. Other blatant lies, repeated often, break down the victim's defenses, strip their confidence, and even push them into a state of trauma or psychosis.
It is a tactic used by sociopaths on their individual victims, and by states on their citizens. The more tyrannical the state, the more likely they are to employ gaslighting against its people.
We are being gaslit, my friends.
How to respond to gaslighters is a long discussion which I'll fully cover in a future article. In short:
- Recognize that it's happening. This disables at least half the attacker's power.
- Don't let on immediately that you've noticed. This is an ace up your sleeve. Watch the attacker's tactics.
- Each time such an attack happens, decide if it merits response or not. If you're not sure, wait.
- Eventually the attacker will do something which clearly has gone over a line, done something illegal or dangerous, said something extreme to try to provoke a reaction from you, etc. Call them out and expose them.
Not reacting (until the time is right) takes away the brunt of their power, and if you can get them to over-extend their strategy, and you're ready to spot it and take action at just the right moment, you can take them out for good.
How does that apply to being told to wear multiple masks?
- Recognize we're being gaslit. They lose half their power.
- Don't react, don't comply, but don't freak out. Continue to watch the state's tactics.
- It's not time to react. Do your best not to let it get to you. You're not alone.
- They will eventually overplay their gaslighting hand.
There are billions of us, so coordinating some kind of response would be impossible. But if individuals know this is happening, they can at least begin to develop a personal strategy and defense.
Do what you can to smile! Fake it till you make it, if you have to. Depression and anxiety are killers FAR more insidious than any virus.
DRutter
We like the new thumbnail!
The section on gaslighting actually could have been its own post!
And the mozzie flying through 2 chain link fences is classic :D
LOL @ facial expressions and don't scare babies! Poor babies seeing now faces. Have you noticed that those masked infographics are also faceless, they're only ever given a forehead, no eyes, creepy!
Anyway, that is an excellent definition of gaslighting, which is hard to find on the web. I hope people find it in their internet searches for it. This is definitely a topic we need to know, as it crops up in our personal lives. It's important to get to know your shadow to make sure you're not accidentally doing this to other people. Not all gaslighters are consciously aware of what they're doing.
Yeah, don't scare babies, indeed! I saw a pregnant lady at the store with a baby today. Luckily the baby, who was chewing on a pack of gum from the store, wasn't wearing a mask, but she was. I wanted to tell her: you know you don't have to wear one of those, you can be exempt because you're pregnant. And if you think it will keep your baby safe from the virus, please just know it's a lie and what will really protect you is your immune system or reducing fomites. You're causing provable harm to your baby in the form of oxygen deprivation for an insignificant chance that it will protect you from this virus the media has made you afraid of. Luckily she;s going to pop by summer so hopefully she doesn't get a jabbed and have a miscarriage!
Excellent definition of gaslighting, indeed! The gaslighting has been used in conjunction with gradual change. Since people are so stuck in their smartphones, they don't reflect on their own lives, they don't notice the (not so gradual) change and things like how masks were supposed to be for when we can't social distance, and that social distancing was to flatten the curve, just to name the most obvious.
Three is good advice. Often gaslights are trying to make have a freakout OR not react at all, even even when it's absolutely ridiculous. The latter here is what the government is doing to us: they're slowly leading us down a path where we do more and more ridiculous things and purposefully do no react for fear of looking like one of those crazy "Karens" the media has made you fear becoming.
A lot of gaslighters who do it consciously and offensively have honed their skills and do it carefully and gradually; you may never know they're gaslighting you until they get sloppy and slip up while you're being observant. The government is sloppy! Their increases were hardly gradual by the end there, and many people aren't doing anything except growing their coping mechanisms to mentally-ill proportions. I guess they really got their foot-in-the-door with fear based on lies which set into motion things that are difficult to undo even if we can point the finger at where we went wrong; we're already under the spell. Break the spell and break the cycle!
"Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity." - Marshall McLuhan
Pfffft, that's just a conspiracy theory!
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STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Increasing masks is increasing efficiency to resist covid-19.
"increasing efficiency to resist"? Looks like that massive student loan is paying off! You can now string together words, making it appear as if you're saying something. Sounds like a communist mantra or something...just by the way you say increasing twice in a pseudo-semantic way.
Simmer down, haha, he's just joking! :)
LOL heheheh yeeeah... ;D
Oh yeah, what's the matter with your lungs lately? Not smoking is definitely a good idea, regardless!