On COVID-19, Conspirituality and the Glowing Mama
Great economic sacrifice, with long term consequences still to come in terms of wealth, inflation and development, were made by North American society in the fight against COVID-19. Rather than let millions of our most vulnerable die due to exposure to COVID-19, the authorities placed severe restrictions on economic activity. The officials who made this decision to place human life over economic development were certainly subject to mixed personal motivations. The net result was and is one of great human solidarity. Cynical and conspiratorial viewpoints tend to dominate a significant portion of our discourse on the lock-downs. In recent times, the new age wellness movement has become entangled with far-right conspiracy ideologies, and this intersection has grown significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has created a perfect storm of fear, confusion, and uncertainty, leading many people to turn to alternative sources for information and guidance. This has resulted in the rise of a new phenomenon known as conspirituality, which blends spiritual beliefs with far-right conspiracy theories. Some of the most prominent figures in this movement are wellness influencers who promote spurious health advice while also endorsing conspiracy theories like Q-anon.
The cynics may snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by discouraging adherence to public health measures. Most visibly by actively opposing mask wearing.
COVID-19 is primarily and airborne ailment.
And yet, the mask faces great resistance among some segment of the people. Perhaps bound up in the political stew of the early 2020s. Masks are associated with obedience. Resistance to masks a mark of the free. Anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers equate personal freedom with personal choice. The natural right to control one's own body trumps public policy.
Generally the costs of violating the public mandate exceeds the benefits of rebellion. Thus most of us wear masks even if some of us do not believe in them.
One recent case in point, a Toronto wellness influencer made a frantic anti-masker video of herself assailing retail workers, She aggressively peppers them with questions about human rights and the validity of the mask mandate. She marches into the store without a mask and attacks the workers for asking her to wear a mask. The workers calmly explain the directive in as simple terms as possible. The woman shouts threats and demands that they write down their names, ostensibly for a future legal challenge. She attempts to engage in a contest of wits, suggesting to the grocers a fierce court room battle ending in her earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. The employees wisely avoid Talmudic dissections of the bylaw and instead opt to bring her her organic tampons outside of the store. In characteristic Canadian fashion the grocer's response to reporters was to apologize. "In speaking about the incident, the Sweet Potato told blogTO that it knew its strengthened mask policy «wasn't going to make everyone happy and we are genuinely sorry about that,» and also that it has worked hard to come to some sort of agreement and make special arrangements for customers who can't or won't wear masks."
The woman surprisingly felt that her display was some kind of victory over Public Health and decided to publish her interaction to the internet. She is apparently an aspiring leader of the conspirituality movement. This is the intersection of conspiracy and spirituality and has grown by leaps and bounds during the pandemic as the confused public seeks easy answers from a morally neutral internet. The wellness influencers, sparsely credentialed health experts, who believe in themselves, now mix Q-anon with their wheat-grass, crystals and cleanses. Matthew Remski does well to define this phenomenon in his article here.
Again, we risk wasting the sacrifices made through all of the 2020, we risk the solidarity we have shown to each other and most importantly with our elderly, we risk human life itself, for the desire to express our feelings. Even if the dreams and ideas of the original thinkers are indeed correct, and the empirical evidence of thousands of doctors is wrong, what is the cost of the mask. For a moment indoors, why risk the disease and the disgrace. Is it not just easier to wear the damn mask?
I will give our influencer, Stephanie "the Glowing Mama" Sebbio, the last word as I am sure she would likely expect it in real life:
"Wearing a mask will make a child feel like they are a walking disease. If they take it off they can kill their grandparents. They are being taught not to trust their incredible bodies and immune systems to protect them and their families from disease...
The risk/harm of these new school mandates, in my opinion, far outweighs the benefit, and it’s up to us as parents to stand up for our children and demand that they have the ability to resume life as they knew it pre-covid, before these damages alter their physical, mental, and emotional health permanently.
Let’s take our power back so that we can stand up for the future of our childrens’ health and well-being."
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