maskholes: an exploration in a short essay;

I don’t know who came up with the term, but it has been about a year now since I first saw militant advocates of mask wearing referred to as maskholes.

I am not on Facebook, so I did not see this pro-mask graphic that someone posted until it was brought to my attention. What a bunch of lies.As a human I have the right not to wear a mask? Is that so? I flew to Philadelphia at the end of September and to Nashville earlier this month. Because of a federal mandate, I was told to wear a mask in the airports I walked through and on the flights I flew on. Although I only put on a mask to go through security and then immediately took it off until I boarded my flight, because I wasn’t going to risk getting thrown off a plane and fined hundreds of dollars, I had to wear a mask on my flights. I could not go to certain places in Philadelphia because they required everyone to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status—and enforced it at the door. Tell the millions of masked children in U.S. schools that as humans, they have the right not to wear a mask. Tell the residents of many states, counties, and cities that as humans, they had the right not to wear a mask last year and have the right not to wear one now. Tell the citizens of Oregon—where the government wants to enforce a permanent indoor mask mandate—that as humans they have the right not to wear a mask. If I as a human have the right not to wear a mask, then why are my human rights being violated every time I travel out of Florida?

So, businesses have a right to not let me in, and not to serve me if I refuse to wear a mask? I certainly agree. But do business have this right because the issue is a mask or because the issue is private property rights? Does the maskhole who posted this graphic on Facebook believe that businesses have the absolute right to refuse entry and service? Of course not. What if a business refused entry and service to someone because of their race, color, sex, religion, or sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or disability? Maskholes would be furious, and claim that the business was discriminating and had no right to refuse entry and service. What a difference a mask makes.

You can have it both ways—as long as property rights are respected..........read more........