The latest style in MAGA wear:
Marjorie Taylor Greene hates face masks, but she sure has quite the collection. There was the much-parodied “CENSORED” one she wore while dissenting against impeachment—quite a claim, since the speech was broadcast on nearly every major news network.
The QAnon conspiracy theorist promoted the alt-right slogan “Molon Labe” (ancient Greek for “Come and take it”) on one mask, and owns another that screams “Free Speech.” So for all of her posturing on liberal tyranny and muzzling mandates, Greene understands how to wield messaging and deflect accountability through her masks. She’s not the only one.
Representative Tom Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, posted a photo on Twitter in a mask that read, “I’m just wearing this so I won’t get fined.” Similar styles are available on Amazon, and cost around $5 to $12. (Representatives for Massie declined The Daily Beast’s request for an interview.)
Missouri congresswomen Cori Bush also asked Greene to wear a mask while the Georgia rep was on Instagram live. “I wanted it to be on the live stream that we are saying, ‘Put your mask on,’ and then her team turned around yelling, ‘Stop inciting violence with Black Lives Matter,’” Bush said in a follow-up interview on MSNBC. “What does BLM have to do with this? Put on a mask and save lives.”
When mask requirements became an unavoidable daily reality for Americans last year, capitalism quickly did its thing. Designers transformed their warehouses into mask production facilities. The accessory became a “lifeline” for a struggling retail industry. Masks are a basic safety precaution, certainly, but they can easily be turned into a sandwich board for anyone and any cause.
Freedom Unmasked, which began as an Etsy store but is now its own freestanding e-commerce site, sells a baby pink mask with chunky white lettering that reads, “My husband didn’t serve in this country for me to wear a mask!”
Look, I think these people are jerks. Wearing a mask is not a big deal and the idea that their personal liberty is being usurped is ridiculous. I’m sure they don’t question wearing pants and going bottomless doesn’t even kill people.
But if putting an obnoxious message on the mask will get them to wear them I say fine. We do have free speech in this country and it is an excellent warning system that you re in the presence of an asshole. If they it curtails their “freedom” to spread COVID all over the place then more power to them.