the dissident frogman

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News like that fills me with the same warm contentment as a man with five penises finding briefs that fit like a glove:

A woman in South Africa avoided getting thrown out of a Pick n Pay supermarket by using her panties as a mask. (…)

(…) the store guard asked the maskless woman, who was waiting with her cart of groceries in the checkout line, to put on a face mask or leave the store.

Having no mask handy, the resourceful renegade objects before pausing (…) In the next moment, the cheeky customer can be seen reaching up beneath her paisley-printed skirt, then pulling her black thong underwear down her legs and up to her face, where she placed it in such a way as to cover her nose and mouth.

“Happy?” she asks sarcastically.Woman uses her own thong as mask after nearly being kicked out of store, New York Post, February 26, 2021

This encounter between a glorious South African frondeur, slinging her g-string at Pick n Pay’s rent-a-jackbooted-thug is a splendid, witty act of rebellion, and a much needed one: more than a year into the SARS-Cov-2-PSY-OPS, and if your experience is similar to mine, you’ve witnessed how quickly people reverted to a level of talismanic thinking usually found primarily among late Stone Age tribes and contemporary “Environmental” activists.

I believe I’ve seen all kinds of irrational behaviors so far—though I suspect some even crazier fool is fixing to prove me wrong at this very minute, as we have reached a point where not just science, but plain old common sense is swept aside to make room for the worst of cultist illusions.

It started in the cities, as collective hysteria always does. Contrary to what most urban blockheads like to believe they are the first to fall for any delusion, particularly when it’s related to the natural world, with which they have no true connection anymore—and even less knowledge—even though their arrogance won’t let them admit their ignorance¹ in such matters.

When it comes to primitive fear of the unknown, XXI^st century urbanites are distinctively indistinguishable from Neolithic tribesmen, apart from the fact that they can’t kill their own food, make their own tools and cut their own clothes.

Advantage: team New Stone Age.

Us “retarded rurals”, as urban apes scornfully describe anybody living outside of their concrete cubes and capable of recognizing a crow from a magpie², have a stronger immunity to fearmongering, particularly when it’s being pushed by the type of people we instinctively distrust: urban bureaucrats and self-described experts who only have to open their mouths to demonstrate how little expertise they have.

We also have a deep understanding and empirical knowledge of nature and the crazy tricks it can pull. Our experience of the spreading of diseases is more extensive and personal, as we witness their effects not only on our species but also on the others, wild and domestic, animal and vegetal, among which most of us live.

And we’re not bored and spending our free time in social media’s echo chambers, amplifying the madness like children scaring each other before bedtime.

I’m glad to say that in my neck of the woods, the Killer Sino-virus Scare yielded mixed results. The worst of the pandemic has been so far—as it will be for the foreseeable future—the tyrannical outreach and abuses of power of the “authorities”.

The irrational behaviors I’ve witnessed were either in nearby towns—which I avoid as much as I can anyway, pandemic or not—or from a minority of people, many of whom were obviously not from around here. Funny how quickly the city snobs scatter from their rat holes when their beloved government says lockdown time.

Suddenly, the prospect of living next to “rural retards” doesn’t look so bad.

And so, between those of us who conceded to fear—of the virus or the authorities—and the sudden influx of urban superspreaders with a newfound love for remote commuting, even the relatively sane areas began to slide into madness as I looked, stupefied.

The first sign of insanity was the gradual appearance of mask madness outdoors. While they made nearly all the abusive mistakes in the book, the French government stopped short from enforcing a nation-wide mask mandate in open air. Most French people started to mask up on their own accord, no matter their age, condition and location.

And what masks they were.

From dishrags to designer’s masks with hi-tech valves: masks of all shape, fabric and fit, at various degrees of cleanliness and worn in all fashions: over and under nose, chins and forehead, strapped on the forearm (don’t ask me) or dangling from one ear.

People wearing them alone in their cars, all windows closed. Alone outdoors. Walking the dog. Jogging.

And my personal best: driving to the hunting-lodge, in the early morning hours a couple of weeks ago. On a narrow road in the middle of nowhere, I pass by one of those New Model Peasants³ on a bicycle. In addition to being obviously lost, he’s got the full, brand new equipment that will make him look like a Tour de France pro as soon as he can cut the same athletic figure: bike, flashy winter cycking suit, gloves, those hi-tech shoes that lock into the pedals, aerodynamic helmet, polarized sports sunglasses…

… And the familiar non-woven white sheet with ear loops snuggled tight onto his face, as he kicks his little iron horse towards victory.

He’s on a small road in the woods. Alone on his bicycle. With a paper mask.

There is no rational explanation for what we’ve seen since last year. This is an appalling mix of pseudoscience and superstition: as long as the eye of Horus is watching you, you’ll be safe with a palatkik in your pocket and the magical muzzle on your face.

It is happening globally and sadly, no vaccine nor herd immunity will help against such an outbreak of stupidity combined with intellectual curiosity deficiency.

The extra layer of irony is that many of these goody two-masks belong to the cosmopolitan crowds that fancy themselves proud children of the Age of Reason and Science. They lament or laugh at the weird beliefs people held in the so-called Dark Ages⁴, constrained as they were in obscurantism and superstition by the political and intellectual elite of the time.

Thank God He’s dead and the Information Age changed all that, huh?