Face masks are ubiquitous.  In most state, a person can't go into a store, a barber shop, a hair salon, a church service, or most any other place without wearing one.  Why?  Masks are not effective in stopping a virus spread.  Back in March, the now highly touted and nationally heralded Dr. Anthony Fauci thought "people should not be walking around with masks."  He said wear a mask if it makes you feel better, but unless you're sick or a health care provider, masks are ineffective in stopping a virus.

Fauci was not alone.  In April, the World Health Organization echoed the same sentiment.  It said healthy people don't need to wear face masks and that doing so won't provide added protection from the coronavirus. 

But word must have come down from the powers on high, and Fauci and the WHO both started singing a new tune.  Masks now became essential.  As Victor Davis Hanson puts it: "Joe Biden has redefined mask wearing.  It is now the thinking man's patriotism, what every 'scientific' and 'refined' mind naturally does."  This attitude was eagerly adopted by many public officials nationwide, and now face masks are virtually mandated in a large segment of the country.  Citizens have even been arrested for not wearing them on beaches and elsewhere.  Then there's California, always the first on the bus to Crazy Town.  There, Gov. Gavin Newsom is telling Golden State residents that if they go out to a restaurant to eat, they should have a mask on their face "in between bites."  No, I'm not making that up.  Is Newsom serious, or is he just seeing how far he can push the envelope? 

If you accept the premise that ordinary facial masks are ineffective against viral infections — which I do and for which there is ample evidence —  what then is their purpose?  It appears more and more likely that it is a form of conditioning — that is, getting people used to obeying the so-called experts.  If you follow the matter, you know there is no shortage of high-level scientists who say masks (and lockdowns) are ineffective.  Yet per the powers-to-be, these scientists do not qualify as "experts" worthy of being heard because they disagree with the party line.  Hence, the public does not get a balanced view on masks from the mainstream media...or on social media. 

It is astonishing how successful the mask campaign has been.  It shows how pliable people are when enough propaganda is directed at them about the exaggerated lethality of the Wuhan virus coupled with mandates, often of dubious constitutionality, from authority figures.  It's such that many ordinary people have been so spooked that they've become mini-mask-enforcers out in public.  You yourself may have run into some of them. I have.

If critical thinking hadn't been abandoned in the public schools a long time ago, this would not be happening.

So today it's "you shall wear a face mask."  What will the dictate be tomorrow?  Perhaps the real story here is that the elites are conditioning Americans for proper behavior under a Harris/Biden administration.  That behavior can be summed up in one word: obey.

A Harris/Biden presidency, if it comes to pass, will let the Constitution wither away to be substituted with a robust rule by the technocrats and "experts" in the bureaucracy.  Freedom and liberty will necessarily be sacrificed for the sake of efficiency and social justice.  This is the essence of the administrative state, and it's what progressivism is all about.