When you’re talking behind a mask, the mask is the message.
It says, I’m not willing to stake my identity on my words.
Many of the students now protesting on college campuses have been covering most of their faces with medical masks. Journalists have reported that many protesters also refuse to give their names or even reveal identifying information, such as where they’re from.
Insistence on anonymity does not inspire support. It makes me think of internet trolls who hide behind pseudonyms while spouting bitterness. For them, the conflict is the point.
How many of the masked protesters are doing it for the thrill while trying to escape accountability?
The leaders of these protests have been speaking up without masks and saying their names. They should demand that all protesters make themselves known.
Accountability for your actions, whether fair or not, is integral to public protests. Civil rights protesters, whom the students are trying to emulate, knew they could be jailed and beaten for sit-ins at lunch counters and peaceful marches. Their bravery inspired others to join them and shamed their oppressors.
I have seen supporters of the current protesters arguing the masks are being worn to prevent transmission of disease. The students are outside. Are we to believe they have been wearing masks to classes and in their dorms, all day every day?
They are cleverly taking advantage of the moral high ground of mask-wearing established during the pandemic. In the process, they’re exacerbating the tension around masking, making it even less likely people will wear masks when we need them to.
The students want to be taken seriously, and while the tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza are serious, messages from people who hide their faces are not.
Agree!
Your article was excellent!!
P.S. Thanks for the shout-out!!!!! If I seem bitter to you, my apologies as I am not bitter. (I would suggest that your comment sure does seem like it is just a tad bitter!!)
I do not seek conflict, but it sure does find me!!!!!
"Insistence on anonymity does not inspire support. It makes me think of internet trolls who hide behind pseudonyms while spouting bitterness. For them, the conflict is the point."