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Rabble Rants: Mask Bans
Episode 13618th June 2024 • Blueprints of Disruption • Rabble Rousers' Cooperative
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Two special guests, Kim Crawley and Bothered Boy, join host Jessa McLean to talk about the mask bans being introduced in the United States, the attitudes here in Canada and the recent uptick in activists being charged for wearing COVID protective masks during direct actions.

We keep us safe - wear a mask comrades.

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We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's

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happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this

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world, there's room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

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The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's

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souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

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We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left

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us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too

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much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we

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need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will

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be lost. Welcome to Rabble Rants. I'm Santiago Gelo Quintero, and alongside Jess McLean, We're

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going to unpack the stories that have us most riled up and challenge the narratives around

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them. Welcome to Rabble Rants, we have two guests with us today. I'm going to take a back seat

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in this discussion, maybe, who knows if I can keep quiet or not. Either way, we've got two

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guests that you may have heard before if you are an avid listener. Kim Crawley joins us

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again as does Bothered Boy and they are taking on mask bands or potential mask bands anyway.

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Kim, why'd you call us into the studio? You wanted to talk about this. Yeah, I mean, I

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really like the recent episodes that you've done covering the various, you know, acts of

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Palestinian resistance, which is obviously extremely important because we've got kind of a Holocaust

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going on now, which is really, really disturbing. And then coinciding with that, what's also

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really disturbing is the COVID pandemic is still raging on. And yet like, 98, 99% of the population

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has chosen to be completely oblivious to it. And it's really sad how many people who call

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themselves anti-capitalist and leftist are also acting oblivious to it and spreading it around.

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And really that's really disturbing as well. And then what's also disturbing is although

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we don't... Okay, there's the mask ban in North Carolina. and a mask ban apparently in Ohio.

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That's really, really disturbing to me, really disturbing. And then what's also disturbing

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is that apparently, I haven't been to any of the Pro-Palestinian protests in Toronto, I'll

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admit, but I hear things, thanks to your show and thanks to other people who go to these

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actions, which is really important. And I hear things like, even though masks aren't spend

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per se here in Ontario and here in Canada, if you're protesting wearing a mask, you could

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get, you know, if the cops are really targeting you, you could get, you know, extra charges

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for that, apparently. You would know more about that than I would, but it's very disturbing.

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It is. So we've interviewed two people and not everybody char- talks about their charges all

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the time. So we know at least two activists in the last like three weeks in Toronto alone

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were charged with unlawfully, were charged with unlawful assembly while masked. And this was

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an additional charge put on top of, you know, trespassing charges, mischief charges, whatever

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the cops decided to charge them with after the direct action. And it's really been weaponized.

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The one guest we had on Anna Lippmann, like we're talking about an N95 because it was a

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sit-in inside an office building where one should still be expected to wear masks. I know that's

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not the norm, but yeah, it's certainly been weaponized against the movement. Well, it's

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been weaponized and vilified in all sorts of ways. So, you know, hi folks, Bothered Boy

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here. I'm here, you know, at the invitation of Kim and Jess to just rant and I do that

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very well. So for me, a big part of like COVID consciousness as well is how it was attacked

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from so many angles. You had people saying, you know, that face masking, like to try and

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target the insecure men, it's a face diaper, it's emasculating, it's babyfying. You had

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people saying, like, as we're seeing now with the cops, it's all about criminality. Well,

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you know, only criminals. hide their faces and I'm like, and people saying like, you know,

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how can you possibly breathe in the mask? And a coworker said this to me recently and I said,

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because I knew it would get under his skin from what I was going to say. I said, well, I mean,

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if you're not a weak ass little baby about it, it's pretty easy actually. And he did not like

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being called a weak ass baby. And that just kind of sort of reinforces my point, right?

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And you know, people thinking, well, you know, oh, it's so difficult to breathe as if we don't

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wear scarves to cover our faces. in winter, this is Canada for God's sake, right? And then

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you also have people like, I remember it's like seared into my mind the first time I saw one

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of those, you know, part of the plandemic, so you know, they're gonna get you wearing masks,

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and then next thing you know, you're wearing a niqab and then a burqa and the full Islamization

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of the West is complete. I'm like, where are you connecting these threads? Cause I just

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do not see it. You're trying to attack people's fragile sense of ego and self and masculinity.

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You're trying to attack, also people try to attack the validity of masking, saying, oh,

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it doesn't really work. It's not important. You know, the vaccine, it's fine. And that's

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why, you know, it's just a cold wind. Really it's not. It's a cardiovascular disease. And

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you know, and only criminals really need to hide their faces. It was so much of a multi-pronged

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attack for you should not wear masks. And at the same time as whether it was politicians,

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corporations, the goddamn WHO itself that were pushing this idea of like, oh no, that's okay.

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In their own back rooms, and you see like internal memos that have since been released, or in

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this case really leaked to the public, they knew from the onset that this was airborne

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and that they had to mitigate it. So they either had people doing like, basically what we saw

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at Davos that one year where it kind of became like more talked about. That's what some of

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these people in corporations were doing from the beginning. It was contact tracing up the

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wazoo. And if you, you know, we're sick, well, sorry, you're staying home and then masking

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inside. And then also HEPA filters all the time, mandatory vaccination for pretty much everyone

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in there, which is again, as well, like, Oh, they're, they're not taking the vaccine. Actually,

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I guarantee you many of them have. And then if they have the few that haven't, if they

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have bad symptoms, then they, you know, throw the whole kitchen sink like what they did for

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Tim pool and Joe Rogan and all these other guys who got it. And also crucially, something else

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that has not been talked about as much, but you do see that at least a few airports now

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is Far Ultraviolet that has been used to also help kill the airborne pathogens, whether it's

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COVID or just anything. That was at Davos. That was at several portable versions, at least

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were at several government conferences that were happening. So it would not be surprising

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to me if at like more conference rooms, you would see that in these like larger, more open

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areas where it's kind of impractical to have, say, 10 or more HEPA filters around. But this

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is what they were doing from the start. And meanwhile, they're telling all of us for a

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variety of reasons, whatever reason they hope will stick, that we should not be masking and

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that it's actually bad or unhealthy or criminal to mask. So that then begs the question of

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why are they pushing that so hard? And there are multiple correct answers to that. But it's

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just so... deeply infuriating. Absolutely. And yeah, I mean, the news about the World Health

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Organization knowing it was airborne from the beginning and how they covered it up. Did you

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see the February 2020 press conference? There's all kinds of YouTube videos about it out there.

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Where Tedros, I can't pronounce his last name, but you know who I'm talking about. Tawadros.

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Yeah. I can't pronounce his name, I'm sorry. It's all good. And then his boss, Mike Ryan,

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or he's Mike Ryan's boss either way. OK, if you look it up on, I think I've already given

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just so linked to us, like the last episode that we did. We did where they let it slip.

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Yeah. So Tedros said, it's very contagious, is airborne. And then Mike Ryan walks up to

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him and whispers in his ear something that you can't hear on microphone. And then a few moments

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later, he says, sorry, I didn't mean that. That was the military word. Droplets. Droplets is

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the term we're supposed to be using. Yeah. And then in late March 2020, the official who Twitter

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account tweets. This is a myth that COVID is airborne. Meanwhile, they were upgrading their

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facilities in Geneva and elsewhere with like, yeah, all sorts of HEPA and whatnot. And. And

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I even knew it was airborne from SARS-1. Let's get back to the news that kind of brought us

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into the studio, that in North Carolina, the Republicans are pushing through legislation,

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and it's actually passed through the Senate now with a 30 to 15 vote. So it's a popular

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bill that they are going to ban the use of masks in public. And like... There's almost no exceptions

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here. Like they wouldn't allow cancer patients. Except for the KKK. Do you mean the police

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or specifically the KKK? Oh, yeah. Yeah. But you see, when they wear, when they wear the

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white clothes and all that, they're KKK. And then when they take that off and they put the

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police uniform on, then they're cops. So whether they're a cop or a Klansman depends on which

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costume they're wearing that day. I mean, I would be willing to bet good money. that if

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there was a, you know, what are the like weird fascists in the states that go around like

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marching? They all wear the same uniform, like Patriot front or something like that. I've

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got names for them, but I'm not sure they're official. OK. Well, in any case, there's like

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that group that I know like parades around and they wear masks to understandably hide their

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identity. I'd be willing to bet money that if and when they do a rally in North Carolina.

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They will not be charged for, you know, like, oh, they're wearing masks and it's like, oh,

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it's going to be fine. I would also like listeners to keep in mind that North Carolina also has

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a significant black population. And that is the population that is going to be most directly

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affected by this legislation, both in terms of criminalizing black people, especially black

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youth. And also, we know for a fact that given all the data sets that we have, black, indigenous,

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just people of color across the board have poor health outcomes in part due to poverty and

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like medical racism. So this is also going to further hurt those communities from not just

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like criminalization point of view and feeding them to like the prison industrial complex,

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but also from like very real and problematic and entirely preventable health outcomes for

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these communities. And I just want listeners to be aware of that and cognizant of that.

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Yeah, and then I would presume also like a white person wearing a respirator is a lot more likely

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to be left alone. If you are visibly marginalized, then you're a lot more likely to be targeted.

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Yeah. Especially because it's couched in this safety language, right? They're trying to say,

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this isn't about health. We're not... trying to punish sick people. I know we know that

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that's what's going to happen. We're going to make people sick and die, but that's really

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not the purpose. You know, it's because people are trying to hide their identity while protesting.

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Like they're saying the quiet part out loud as well. That part that they don't like the

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fact that they're not able to identify us at a glance with their the software and all of

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the stuff that they have at their use, because. The great thing about the one of the great

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things about the Palestinian solidarity movement is the high use of masks, the understanding

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of like solidarity being a verb and not being a part of it. Like that has been clear from

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the get go. And they don't like that, right? That's can't keep fighting for Palestinian

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liberation. If you all knock yourselves out, you know, kill yourselves with a virus and,

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and then like, kill yourself, you know, incapacitate yourselves with long COVID and whatnot. And

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then what I hear also is that in Gaza, like I'm sure Gaza is a constant horrific hellhole

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and we've seen enough photos and video footage and whatnot. It's incredibly disturbing and

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nothing sure of a Holocaust really, what's going on there. But the ones that don't get killed

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by bombs or, you know, collapsed buildings or like an IDF guy actually sniping at them or

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whatever. The ones that don't are dying from COVID and other viral illnesses a lot of the

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time. And right now, famine as well. And famine, yes. But Jess, what you were just saying reminded

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me of something else about, you know, mask bands and sort of the... double edged sword of dastardliness

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that it is because it's a really easy thing for Republicans to do that satisfies their

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base, right? It's just like mask ban. Haha, that'll show them woke liberals. On two fronts,

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right? On the anti-vaxxer, anti-mask front and the, you know, what the fuck are these protesters

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doing? Well, yeah. So like there's that element of like it's a really simple, easy win with

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a very red base. Um, but the real win is as we're saying about like software and everything

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like that, there was like a story, I forget where it was, but it was somewhere in the States

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where people re there was like a, um, a mishap with a vending machine and like the employee

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break room or whatever. And it turns out there was a camera in the like vending machine that

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was just like, and it's like, why does the vending machine need a camera? And there was like no

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reason for it to. be there or like at the level that it was other than to, you know, observe

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and listen in on, you know, conversations in the break room or to, you know, train on facial

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recognition. And then that reminded me that like, you know, we know that this is part of

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it as well as like, you can't recognize faces with masks. And that's why more and more places

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are trying to criminalize it. But then I also remembered about how there was that. trend

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a while ago where people realized that facial recognition software couldn't recognize jugalo

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makeup. So a bunch of people were saying, oh, you know, this is how the revolution begins.

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Everyone's going to, you know, be whooping, drinking Fanta and, you know, like with the

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jugalo makeup. And then handily, there was an app that came out that went semi viral, whereas,

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hey, what would you look like with jugalo makeup? Like with this filter. And suddenly facial

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recognition can tell. in spite of jugular makeup with a mask that is still much harder to do

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because you're functionally changing the shape of your face and you're hiding like anywhere

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from half to you know two-thirds of your facial data. Yeah but you know what I've seen something

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online recently like data that shows that wearing sunglasses is harder for facial recognition

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software than not wearing sunglasses

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Oh good, I'll cover it on all fronts. So they're not banning sunglasses. Wait for it. I'm sure

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they will. They will find a reason. That will be the next thing to be criminalized. It's

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like only criminals wear sunglasses when they don't need to. It's, you know, like, we need

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to train our eyes for sunlight. You know, our beautiful eyes that God gave us and the sun,

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which is also his creation. You don't need sunglasses or glasses at all, folks. Like I'm... I hate

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putting that energy out there, but I'm gonna live to see that. Oh God. I want to ask him

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though, cause she didn't develop on that. Why then? Right? If, if their motivator isn't all

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about being able to identify us, right? Cause like they could easily focus on other things.

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I think it might get even darker than that. I think maybe facial recognition is definitely

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a factor, right? Not just the software, but maybe a respirator makes it harder for a cop

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firsthand to track us. But also, I think that some of these people really want us to be infected.

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They really want us to be infected. So that would be another factor. And then another factor

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is... A lot of these people, and even liberals, even liberals, and even some leftists, disturbingly

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enough, hate seeing us wear respirators because that reminds them of the pandemic. And so whereas,

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you know, you and I, we see a respirator and that's comforting. That's comforting that someone's

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wearing a respirator to see them wearing a respirator because we know that we're a lot less likely

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to get sick in their presence. Whereas if you're one of the masses, you see a respirator and

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you think, oh no, I was trying to get this pandemic that I've been trying to push out of my head.

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Now it's reminding me again. And then one thing that really, really bothered me starting last

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year was the assumption that if you're wearing a respirator, that means you're sick. Yeah.

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I mean, it could be. Yeah, it could be. And if you do feel under the weather and you do

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have to go, I mean. please fucking wear a mask. Yeah, definitely if you have an infected disease.

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That's self-centered people. Well, I guess you're protecting someone in the end. But the thing

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is, on average, the people, the 1% of us or less who consistently wear respirators in public

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are a lot less likely to be infected. And these people in the masses all the time, they go

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out and they're infected, they may or may not know it, nothing there. Like the people spreading

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the disease are the people with naked faces.

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The corporations and the government and all that, they've all kind of colluded to demonize

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masking and all of this pretend the pandemic is over shit did not occur overnight. It took

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like a gradual process of propaganda and acclimatizing people. to all of this. That almost started

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right at the beginning. Yeah, yeah. Before, right? Trump was like, there's no pandemic,

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there's no pandemic, okay, there's a little pandemic, okay. You know, like, oh. I'm doing

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amazing at dealing with the pandemic. No one's dealt with the pandemic better than me or America,

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God bless America. Very good. Thank you. I've had years of practice. The. The other thing,

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sort of expand on that point about, you know, why they want to sick and infected is the same

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with why they got us working longer and longer, because if you have free time, you have time

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to think, stop and enjoy. And then you want those things more often. And then you're not

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putting more money into the pockets of capitalists. And they don't want that. That's part of why

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we were rushing to get back to normal. And why that was the term used is because We need to

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get back to you giving me all your days and your labor and risking your life to make me

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and about 800,000 other people in the world, fantastically, supremely wealthy. And that's

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where a lot of this starts, right? Like there's, there is this assumption with like, within

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certain circles, whether it's leftist circles or far right wing circles, that there's a grand

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conspiracy. And I'm just kind of very banal and a bit of a basic bitch about this. Um,

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98% of all problems in the world and conspiracies can be boiled down to the simple fact of existence

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that we are on a planet that is governed by sociopaths, well, rich sociopaths, that are

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having to interact and deal with other rich, greedy sociopaths. And that just kind of explains

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the bulk of everything and whatever can't be explained by that is explained by things like

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misogyny and racism. That's pretty much my view of how the world works. Bo Burnham ain't got

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nothing on me. That being said though, it is interesting how the push towards avoiding any

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kind of responsibility, like for us, as we said, it's sort of more comforting or reassuring

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that seeing someone else is masking their taking it seriously, both for their health, the health

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of their family members, their community, their friends, everyone, right? And someone somewhere

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summed it up so beautifully in a comment that... The reason why people like us get a lot of

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pushback for that is because a lot of other people like to think that they are good people,

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but under the current Western system are on some level fundamentally selfish. And so they

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think of themselves as a good person and seeing a reminder that they're not being as good as

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they could be makes them feel bad and they don't want to feel bad or guilty. And rather than

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sit and like, you know, unpack that and sit with that, it's rather, you know, some other

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reason for like, Oh, why are you still wearing that? It's over. So it says the who or my family

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or me. And you know, like, I just really need to get back to life because I was getting too

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depressed and like, no one wants to unpack all of that. It's just, I think I'm a good person

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and you know, probably lots of other people said you are a good person and I think most

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humans are on some level neutral to good, most humans that being said, when it comes to a

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time like this, that's really kind of like Okay, time to put your morals and values to the test.

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A lot of people will fail because we are in this capitalist system that promotes, you know,

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greed, individualism, the immediate reward, convenience. And when that is called into question

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and is removed and we've been accustomed to it from day one, that makes it really challenging.

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And unfortunately, that's also why places predominantly in Asia, and especially the communist parts

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of Asia. had the best response to the pandemic. The communist parts of India were the first

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to get their act together, to get contact tracing underway, to get supplies and a real sense

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of community to the rest of their people in places like Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. You

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had the Vietnamese and the Chinese and the Lao constantly just like, oh, hey, you know what?

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If this really gets through to us, it's going to absolutely ravage us, and we don't want

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that. And in general in Asia, particularly, East and Southeast Asia, there is more of a

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sense of community. And so like when people heard, oh, masking will help. That's why I

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still to this day in so many videos. And I see this from like white tourists who go like,

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you know, oh, we're traveling post pandemic now. And here I am in, you know, Malaysia,

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Vietnam, China, Japan, wherever they're going. And still the vast majority of the locals there

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are masked. I see it in videos from India. I see it in videos from Japan, Korea, China,

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Vietnam, wherever. And It's like, buddy, are you not picking up the vibe? Everyone else

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is messing. That doesn't mean most of these people are sick or that they're scared. It's

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that they care about their communities, which includes their friends, their family, their

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loved ones. Like it is so deeply infuriating. I even found that with umbrellas. You will

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find often I lived in Scarborough and people. from Hong Kong would often carry umbrellas

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in sunshine. And most Canadians would look and mock, you know, maybe not openly, but be like,

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oh, don't you know it's not raining? And it took us a while. I think we're slowly coming

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around to the idea that we get damaged by the sun and there's just like some small steps

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you can take to not constantly be exposed to the sun. But it feels like we still have taken

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it as seriously as other folks, right? And it becomes something to almost, yeah, not admire

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them for, but rather think that they're being silly or overzealous. Right. And it's that

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whole mentality that, oh, you're going to die anyway. Little small things can't make big

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changes. Right. So. That seems to be a cultural expanse that I don't know what it stems from,

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but both community and personal responsibility for your own health and doing kind of things

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that might be deemed convenient because I just carried an umbrella all day today. It ain't

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fun. My glasses, they do, they fog up when I wear the mask. I pinch my nose more, but there's

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some sunglasses I wear. They're just awful. And... It's an inconvenience. I don't like

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it, but I do it. So you need to have people that are willing to do that. Yeah, like you

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said, like the whole convenience culture is just, we want it as easy as possible, as fast

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as possible. And don't tell me I can't do something, you know, that becomes... I'm perplexed why

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even completely selfish, self-centered people have bought into the propaganda and aren't

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masking because... There's so much research now like COVID eats the mitochondria in your

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cells. COVID fuses brain cells together and shit like that. And apparently, but now there

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are a few diseases that have so much research about them than like SARS-CoV-2. And so you

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would think that people, even out of pure self-preservation, would be wearing a respirator. But the only,

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the only, I think your average person is deliberately avoiding the information. When, when, you know,

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when our politicians and media outlets and whatnot said, Oh, you can take off your mask now. That's

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what they wanted to hear. That was the comforting lie. Right. It makes me so sad. I don't leave

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home very often, but when I do, I think like a month ago, I walked from home to U of T campus.

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This was before maybe it was six weeks ago. This is before the Palestinian the Palestinian

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solidarity movement was gathered in Milan before that. But I walked over there and on my way

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and that's a long walk. It's like a 90 minute walk from here. And on my way walking to U

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of T St. George campus, I probably passed hundreds of people, and maybe I probably passed, you

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know, five, six, seven people in masks on my way, walking down the sidewalk. And every single

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one of those, I think, was a surgical mask. And that just... blows my mind because you

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would think the one, two percent of the population who realize that the pandemic is still ongoing

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and they should be protecting themselves would spend five minutes researching on the internet

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about how, you know, surgical masks don't really do very much. And even like if you can't afford

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to, you know, I can understand, like I've been really poor. I can understand. that buying

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a bunch of 3M auras when you can only get economy scale if you buy 20 of them at a time, that

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could really be difficult for someone who's on OW, like near impossible. But you can contact

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a mask block, and there's a mask block in Toronto, and they will give you respirators. So there's

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those. Also, again, reminder from possibly pre-recording, I have masks. So if anyone needs some, contact

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your friendly, local, neighborhood, bothered boy. And they're N95s? Or they're KN94s or

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N99? I think they're a form of N95. I'm pretty sure. I will double check. But there's also,

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I get to shill a charity here in Canada. The donate a mask project slash Epsa can charity

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if you do not have funds It is their like mission and goal to still get masks to you In fact,

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they have a great little sampler pack So you can try like a whole bunch of different kinds

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of masks and respirators to see which one works for you And so some people find oh, you know

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what the flow is great and others say flows not really for me But then like they really

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like another one. So it's great. Love them Support your local people who are still taking this

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seriously so once again, that is the donate mask project and Epsa can either one of these

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search terms should turn you up stuff on like I know they're on Twitter I don't know if they're

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on like blue sky or Instagram or Facebook But like, you know, just go online your web browser

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type those up you have a website there. Yeah, and Yeah So so, you know, there are thankfully

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people in organizations and organizations still doing this work. These are things that our

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government should be doing, but they're not. And apparently the Ontario government or the

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Ontario health care system is sitting on a massive stockpile of N95s. Well, because we can't go

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back. We can't go back to that. No, people won't have it. So we're done with masking forever

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and always. No, could you imagine Doug Ford's base if he started handing out masks at this

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point? So let's talk about that, the possibility of Canadian governments following suit, conservative

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governments, right? Because North Carolina is about to do it, it's going to go through. I

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can only imagine Florida was like, well, that sounds like a great idea. And then a few other

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southern states are likely working on this, I am sure. And law enforcement. they're salivating.

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But can we see Canadian governments doing this, especially if it doesn't get a lot of blowback?

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It seems popular to their base. I would put money on the Blaine Higgs government of New

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Brunswick doing it. That'd be my bet for like who's going to be the first, either them or,

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you know, the stock standard usual favorite of the UCP in Alberta. It's one of those two.

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And like It's really unfortunate because it sort of goes back to that earlier point about,

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um, you know, it's an easy win with the base to distract from problems. Right? So, you know,

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there's Daniel Smith and Albert and Blaine Higgs just being like, all right, you know what?

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I've absolutely botched healthcare and I've completely botched the economy and it's proper

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recovery. And, oh, look at that. Um, the things that I said that I was going to do, you know,

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take care of the economy, that's not doing so hot. So. I need distractions. What can I do

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that's going to be a hit with my base that's not going to impact my major donors? So, I

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know, let's target the minorities. So hit them with some indigenous racism, hit them with

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some anti-LGBTQ legislation, hit them with something unnecessarily divisive trying to drive a wedge

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between you and another province or you and the federal government. That is the standard

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playbook for Higgs and Smith in this country. And we all have to, unfortunately, deal with

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it because they have majority government. So we're stuck with them for a few more years.

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But those would definitely be my bets for who would try and do this first to really try and,

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like, distract from the other awfulness that is happening and plaguing their respective

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provinces. Yeah, I could see Doug Ford also trying this because he is relished in the criminalization

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and demonization of pro-Palestinian movements. And since they're able to frame this as a law

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and order kind of safety, because they're not saying it's a health thing at all. Like we're

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talking about it from a health perspective, but they're talking about it from a protect

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you from these scary protesters. And if, yeah, that can score them some political points at

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this time, as well as serve as a blow to the movement. Because Anna Lippman was on and she

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made a great point. And reading one of the quotes here from the article on the North Carolina

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case, where one of their Democratic senators says, you're making careful people into criminals.

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And by targeting organizers with extra charges relating to masks, you're sending a message

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to everyone they work with, right? And so that's gonna... start to weigh on people when they

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go into spaces, especially folks who like, well, we all should be wearing a mask, but some people

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absolutely have to, you know, like it's just not a choice. They are not going to participate

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if the folks around them aren't masked, if they can't wear a mask without worrying about getting

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charged by police. And so it'll have the effect of isolating people again. Right? Like so much

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work has been done, I think, by especially the disabled community, to remind organizers to

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be conscious, COVID conscious in their planning and just seeing the movement the way that it

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is and the focus on masking now. It's just, I'd hate to see that work go backwards and

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for folks to have to then go back to home. Although there's ways you can participate in the movement

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from home, but you know, it's just... It could be incredibly isolating and you don't want

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anyone having second thoughts going out into these actions right now. Like we need to encourage

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as many people to participate as possible. So that's really chilling when folks hear that

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news. Like we're trying to even decide, do we talk about this? Like will this scare people

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out of doing actions or wearing a mask now? You know, should a law be passed? Like what

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do those folks do?

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It just opens up the amount of times two people will call the cops on other people. Like, you

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know, it's one thing to snicker at someone wearing a mask or say something rude behind them in

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line, like, oh, I thought COVID was over or whatever. You know, the harassing people guy.

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I'm sure we've all experienced it, right? That would just explode, right? And not only that,

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they feel these, these Karens that we love to call them, would feel no ways about calling

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the cops, about seeing anybody with a mask. You know, and we know what happens when the

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police respond to masked individuals. So they're going to roll up on a like a disabled person

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in a wheelchair or in crutches and just like wearing a mask, like you're looking very criminal

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and I'm going to lose my shit when that inevitably happens. On that note, like another thing that

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I wish more people internalized is. Listen to. disability advocates and disabled people because

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how they are impacted is the ultimate end goal, the forced poverty, the lack of health and

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support and services and the disdain for their existence. That's where this is all headed.

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And that's why it's all interconnected. And that's why a lot of our leftists, like, you

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know, homework, I'm not saying us three like need to do, but... Like the groups and circles

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that we run in still need to do a lot of work of actually listening to and accommodating

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and respecting disabled people in our circles. Cause I've seen way too much awfulness over

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the past few years. Like even, you know, when like we should still be taking it seriously

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now, but I remember even in like 2022, just two years into it, not even there were people

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where, you know, disabled people would say, so like, what are you doing to make the space

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safe? and accessible and it's like, well, you know, just can't really do that for reasons.

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Or like some discourse that happened recently of like, you know, you owe it to train and

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there I am thinking like, OK, buddy, if you want to train, that's fine and that's good.

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You can't force it on everybody because not everybody has that capability that time. Like,

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it's such a point of privilege to say that not everyone's role in the revolution is going

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to be a fighter. You know, like it's yeah. You mean when you say train, you mean like workout?

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Like, yeah, I saw that go around that discussion. That's so ableist. How people can't realize

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that. Ableist, fatphobic. It's just like, oh, my God. People who say that haven't organized

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with this is the disabled community. And I cannot believe this day and age that there are movements

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and organizations out there like the NDP. that don't realize the resource that they have pissed

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off. Like forget that they're fucking people, right? Like you shouldn't treat people like

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that. But it's an incredible resource of talent and drive and commitment, honestly. Like that,

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and any politician or any movement that leaves them out of the equation is doing themselves

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a huge disservice, huge. because all these things are interconnected. It was a really hard lesson

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to learn and much harder for a lesson for you to learn because you were so much more involved

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for so much longer. But it doesn't seem like the NDP's reason for existing is to fight for

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the marginalized. Their reason for existing is to take any sort of leftist needs and sentiment

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and activism and... contain it in a way that it's not going anywhere and it's not going

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to have any sort of practical change. It's like kind of how I feel now that electoral politics

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in general and voting is to pacify the masses into thinking that they're doing something.

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I have a good analogy because recently people have talked about the ratcheting effect of

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politics where it always ratchets to the right and then liberals never really do anything

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to really fix it. For me, this was not new. I was told this by like my salty as fuck history

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teacher. I forget her name was Miss Kershen or something, but like from high school, right?

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It's like I knew this in the 2000s like oh, ratchet effect. Interesting. But that usually

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only applies to a two-party system. So like I found a new way to talk about the NDP's purpose

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here. So the conservatives are the ratchet that ratchet things to the right. The liberals prevent

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it from being moved to the left in any meaningful capacity. The NDP's purpose is to serve as

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the waterproofing. They are there to prevent actual meaningful leftist organization and

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orgs that could whittle away at the ratchet or the like, you know, part that's holding

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it in and thus like allow the system to eventually fail and crumble and thus need replacing. So

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that is the purpose of the NDP in Canada. It is the waterproofing to the ratchet of politics.

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That's that's beautiful. I love that. That makes perfect sense. Definitely. Thank you. Subscribe

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for more silliness. I'm not even going to comment because my audience, my audience has heard

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me rate rage on the NDP enough. I think they've heard all of my theories and yeah, they're

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counter revolutionaries. Side note, in case I don't get to talk about this elsewhere, we're

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Jamie. What? I probably might even edit. Jamie West shows his face at the emergency rally

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today at the University of Toronto encampment. And I see him there in his bright orange windbreaker

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and the sight of him there already, I am getting worked up. And Santiago is trying to pretend

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to be like, okay, he's being like real media. He's got his press pass. He's in with the media

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people. And I'm like kind of holding his umbrella over him. I'm the protester, he's the media,

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right? We can't mix, but we are. Anyway, I said to him, I don't know what I'm gonna do if he

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takes the stage, Santiago. I mean, I'll move away from you so I don't damage your press

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creds, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to contain myself. And he just kind of gave me

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this like nervous chuckle. You're so funny, honey. You're so funny. Sure enough, he took

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the fucking mic. He thought it would be appropriate to take the fucking mic. I mean, they gave

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it to him. He didn't take it and make a sound. But he got up there and he talked about how

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he knew how solidarity was a verb. He knew how important it was to stand beside people, even

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it was tough. And I fucking heckled the shit out of him. I could not help myself. I was

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Barry Weiss all of a sudden. And, um, yeah, I. didn't handle it well, but then everyone

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started chanting, reinstate Sarah Jama, reinstate Sarah Jama. I was gonna say, because. Because

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I said, like, how, where were you when Sarah Jama needed you to stand beside her? How can

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you stand at the mic? Why couldn't you do and stand beside her in the legislature? You know,

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like, I was just so, he was there to like orange stamp this, as though like the NDP had been

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with them from the beginning and it was such a load of shit. He couldn't even say that though

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at the end of his speech, you know what he said? He didn't say, you know, the NDP is with you.

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And of course he focused on the fact that they were trying to fire people and not the fact

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that Palestine should be free. But anyway, he says that labor stands with you because he's

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the labor critic. He couldn't even he couldn't even accurately say obviously that, oh, and

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I'm here to say that the Ontario NDP stands with these students and their right to protest

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or anything watered down like that shit. He didn't because he couldn't. But anyway. Don't

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let people like that take the mic at your spaces, please. Well, yeah, because they're just running

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over the details of like, hmm, how is this going to play in our favorability ratings? Cause

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that's what this is all about now and about power and potential influence. And like, how

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do we, how do we win an election? And meanwhile, it's like so many activists that I know who

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are passionate either for the federal NDP candidates or for like provincial Ontario NDP candidates.

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Like, yeah. Let's let's do this. I'm you. You wanted me. I'm here. I'm hyped. I'm ready to

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go. And they're like, yes. So actually, no, we need you to tone it down to basically three

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percent. Not this hundred and ten percent you're giving us. And we like that's nice. But like,

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really, come on, get on the neoliberalism bus. Like just they just pretend you're better than

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everyone else. You're basically just being an orange liberal, just being an orange liberal.

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That's that's what we're looking for now. And and like, again, this goes back to like, hey,

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stuff that's going to affect. the disabled and women of color. Look what happened to Sarah

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Jama. We had a disabled woman of color be like incredibly attacked to the point of receiving

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death threats, being kicked out of caucus and being censured by the legislature for her incredibly

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offensive statement of pain, suffering, murder, bad, and there should be peace and like solidarity

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to all those who have lost lives was the initial. Statement more or less right and people were

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like how can you say that? Sarah Jama and I'm just here like nothing she said was wrong or

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out of pocket, so Why are we doing this and it's like wait no right? black disabled Muslim

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woman there it fucking is that's why I I want to reel it back in so that we can close it

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out a little. Sorry, I get needed about stuff like this. No, no, I'm just as guilty. I think

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I started it with my Jamie West story. But back to the mask ban and talking about the weakness

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of the NDP and the fact that Jill Andrews has been the only MPP that's regularly masked.

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She's probably been the only politician in Canada that I have seen regularly masked. So I fear

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for any kind of challenge that would go up against a potential mask ban in Canada, who is going

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to sit there and really fight for that when and how would they when they've not really

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been wearing them or advocating for them from the beginning, right? That there's not a party,

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a mask party in Canada. And I don't mean like their own party, but you couldn't point to

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the liberals or the NDP as champions of COVID consciousness at all. So if. the conservatives

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introduce something like that. I imagine it would just sail right through without much

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of a whiff, because I think they don't think it's popular and they've got no ground to stand

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on. So, you know, I echo Kim's concern that when we see things in these Southern states,

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we like to dismiss them as crazy American trends and oh my God, look what they're doing down

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there. But sure enough, it finds its way up here. You know, they find validity in that

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and... And yeah, that's something the pushback will have to come from different sources, not

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our politicians. I'm going to put in the public record that I am not going to allow myself

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to be forcefully infected. So I'm not going to allow myself to go out in public and then

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a Toronto cop rips my mask off my face. I'm not going to allow that situation to happen.

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And you can like use your imagination and put two and two together as to how I would apply

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that. But I am not going to let that happen either way. We might, best case scenario, if

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there is a mask ban, the cops just can't enforce it or they're... they enforce it very infrequently

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or just enforce it and people will go to... Selectively. It'll be selective. Yeah. You

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bother them. You look at the cop wrong, you organize in a mask, you, you know, push up

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against power in a mask and all of a sudden it'll be a problem. But yeah, yeah. Sorry,

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I was laughing because... Every time someone talks about cops, I have the oink piggy piggy,

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we're gonna make your lives shitty. And I need to work it into an episode and I just did.

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So thank you for that. But you know, what's I know that this podcast is public, so I'm

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going to be very careful about what I say. But the truth is that the cops are harming each

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other by spreading COVID amongst themselves. just like other populations are. I predict

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that they can buy all this military technology, the law enforcement in the United States especially,

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a lot of law enforcement agencies in the States have a lot of military equipment, especially

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like the NYPD and the LAPD, and the Toronto police and whatnot, to the best of my knowledge,

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don't have a lot of military equipment yet. But chances are with, you know, very late stage

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capitalism, disdain and fascism and all that, it's coming. Right. But they can have all that

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technology, they can have like fucking tanks like some law enforcement agencies do in the

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United States and whatnot. And like Boston Dynamics, robot dogs with like the guns on them and shit.

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That's that shit is coming. Right. But if they have decimated most of their human workforce.

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because they've all had COVID too frequently, it's gonna be much more difficult for them

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to enforce these bans. And they can have billions and billions and billions of dollars given

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to them from multiple levels of government, because all of our governments will just give

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the Toronto police and the RCMP and whatever a blank check, really, right? But all the money

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and all the military equipment. and all the Boston Dynamics dogs with firearms on them

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and shit, and all the drones, if they decimate their own numbers by all of them getting COVID

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too often, now we have H5N1 coming and all that, if they keep dwindling their numbers, and already

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in Ontario and I think elsewhere in Canada and the United States, the public school workforce

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has been deteriorating. You know, they can have all kinds of money to train and hire new teachers,

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but if the population of people who can go to like teachers college and all that is dwindling.

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You know, either dying or long COVID so bad that they're largely bedridden. They can't

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do their teaching jobs or the brain damage from multiple COVID infections or whatever. So yeah,

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cause the cops aren't protecting themselves from COVID. So. If they didn't have families,

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I wouldn't give a shit, but you know, it's the collective damage will, I mean, maybe one day

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we can possibly measure. the lost potential from massive amounts of COVID infections in

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people, right? Like brain capacity, I mean, beyond the fact that we've lost people and

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we'll lose people. But in the cost of the health care for treating long COVID down the road,

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I mean, yeah, there's so many things that just don't make any of these mask bands make sense.

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unless you look at it from that dark perspective that we started with from the beginning, you

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know, both from a law perspective and a eugenics perspective. And that's a reason to rant. Thank

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you both for coming on the show and unpacking that with us. I'm sure we'll have you back.

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It's been great. Thank you so much. Looking forward to it. That is a wrap on another episode

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of Blueprints of Disruption. Thank you for joining us. Also, a very big thank you to the producer

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of our show, Santiago Jaluc Quintero. Blueprints of Disruption is an independent production

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operated cooperatively. You can follow us on Twitter at BPEofDisruption. If you'd like to

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help us continue disrupting the status quo, please share our content. And if you have the

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means, consider becoming a patron. Not only does our support come from the progressive

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community, so does our content. So reach out to us and let us know what or who we should

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be amplifying. So until next time, keep disrupting.

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