Protesting Politely

To remain in the public psyche, a falsehood needs to be sprinkled with bits of truth and endlessly repeated. Truth, on the other hand, needs only to be said loudly and clearly once, and it takes on a life of its own. This is a key insight when it comes to protesting.

If a falsehood is to be pushed, grand manifestations are required. A script must be written and followed. A team of PR advisers must be put in place. Enormous resources must be employed, and news channels must repeat the falsehood endlessly. However, when it comes to truth, no script and no PR team is required. It needs only to be said clearly once. No repetition is required. But it must be said by all, because it's only when we speak truth that we fully absorb it. An effective way to spread truth is therefore a method of announcement and silence. The truth we want to spread is clearly announced, after which we leave it to rest.

The announcement acts like a seed. It plants the truth in the mind of the listeners. They may vocally reject it right away, but it sticks, because truth sticks. It develops over time in the minds of others. It sets roots, and become eventually a part of what they believe. It becomes so fully internalized that it becomes part of them. At that point, the listeners will announce this truth themselves, often thinking that it's their original thought. Listeners will in turn internalize this truth, and a chain reaction ensues. Suddenly, what was once a fringe idea, becomes common and widespread to the point of being the dominant idea.

Effective protesting on the side of truth is therefore something entirely different than the elaborate schemes required to push a falsehood. It requires no planning and no repetition. Creativity is often key. But truth does not require originality in order to be pushed. Acting truth out in way of example is often all that is required. If mask-wearing is mandatory, don't wear a mask. It can be that simple.

If mask-wearing becomes widespread to the point of being irritating, a one off stunt may be appropriate. I did this once. I published it widely on my Facebook wall a few weeks ago, and I can already see results that may be due at least in part to my stunt. People who used to praise the virtue of mask wearing have stopped their mindless parroting. People who constantly reported on covid cases have likewise stopped doing so. Instead they are focusing on the economic and psychological damage that has been wrought by overzealous bureaucrats.

The encouraging sign in this is that people that used to repeat falsehoods and propaganda, are now either silent or right out vocal about truth. The message is being embraced. To encourage this, I either give them a thumbs up, or I remain silent. The goal is to have these people take ownership of truth. It's not to go about telling everybody how right I was, so I keep a low profile. We must never be tempted by ego to rock the boat just at the moment when things are starting to go well. That would be folly of the highest order.

But there are no lack of eager mask-wearers out in the streets, and this should be combatted as best we can, because it's the consensus of the people that ultimately gives the green light for draconian measures by politicians. Non-compliance and sloppy mask-wearing should therefore be encouraged. Full compliance should be discouraged.

A way to do this is to treat the compliant mask-wearers in a completely different manner from that of our fellow non-compliant and sloppy mask-wearers. When we see a fully compliant mask-wearer, we make a wide detour to avid coming too close to them. This is after all what they desire for themselves. They are voluntarily wearing the mark of the leper, as it were. They are begging for social distancing. If they want to be treated like lepers, why not treat them like lepers? To do otherwise would be impolite.

This sets up a social distinction between compliant and non-compliant mask-wearers. The non-compliant ones are the ones included in our circle of friends. We treat them as we treated people before covid. Only those who are overtly compliant are treated according to the new rules. We don't look at them, we keep them at a distance, and we try to isolate ourselves as much as possible from them. This way, we illustrate clearly what they are rooting for, and many are likely to realize their fault and mend their ways.

Leprosy Rash

By Luis A. Marcos, Stephen Conerly, and Sue Walker - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4125238/, CC BY 4.0, Link