Coercion, that’s an unusual looking word. One we don’t think about that much. Coercion (Yes, it’s really spelled that way.) seems to be something straight out of a novel, or an NYPD episode. Somewhere, the “bad guy” holds a gun to your daughter and you’ll do whatever he says to save her. That’s coercion, using some tool to get people to do what you want. So, yeah it’s bad guys with guns… but we also see it everyday both online and IRL. (See, I’m so cool for a grown up. #momlife)

Coercion is the bread and butter, the daily beat, the coffee that society runs on. It’s the soul of the advertising industry. However, there are no “bad guys with guns” involved. The root of it all is an instinctual desire to fit in, belong, be loved. It’s part and parcel of human nature, as designed by God. The original sin might be said to have occurred after a hefty dose of “fitting in” coercion. “Come on Eve.” Satan lisped, “God has access to *all* the trees. Don’t you want to be just like Him?” Coercion is nothing new.

Coercion works. It’s why government agencies from AbilityOne to Sawa Radio advertise. It’s why there’s an entire business sector called “government advertising”. Even Uranus, Missouri has an advertising budget. Did you know that the tiny little state of North Dakota, whose entire population is approximately equivalent to just 75% of San Francisco, has budgeted $2,000,000 just for mask advertising? (1) That’s $2.62 per person. For that price the state could probably just buy everyone a mask. If this were Illinois, that figure would be nearly 35 million. (Although if this were Illinois, it would likely cost more.)

In the grand societal test that is the Covid Pandemic, North Dakota might be called the “coercion method” state. Hawaii is probably the “mandate method” state, as they have the most, and many states are utilizing some, middle-ground mixture, of coercion and mandates.

Why would a state want to spend money to peer-pressure people into wearing masks? The simple answer is coercion is effective. It’s often more effective than law. Think Satan would have gotten very far with Eve if he growled, “Go pick a fruit from that tree, because I said so!” Yeah… Moms and dads everywhere know how well that works.

Advertising on the other hand- advertising can convince people to adopt all kinds of idiotic behavior. Case in point:

Which brings us to an interesting set of comparisons: Cigarette ads and mask ads. Please note that we know now that masks are bad for you. They cause all sorts of lung problems, oh wait. I meant cigarettes. We know now that cigarettes are bad for you.

Smoking causes a person’s lungs to not work well, in turn this causes tiredness and headaches (kinda like masks). Smoking causes “smokers mouth” and may increase acne (kinda like masks). And of course, we can’t forget the big one… cancer. Smoking “causes” cancer. Although technically, smoking increases the risk of cancer, rather than directly “causing” it (also possibly kinda like masks according multiple articles in the journal Nature Cancer). (5)

But you know, who cares about a little generalization as long as it furthers the goal, right? Imagine if football were played with an elastic chain for measuring the location of the football as compared to 1st down. The goal is what’s important right? Let’s not quibble over details. (Football fans cringe here.)

Disclaimer: I know squat about football beyond the fact that there’s a “chain gang”, a football and two teams. So if that analogy makes no sense, I apologize. Carry on.

Well, what if we compare the persuasive images from cigarettes and masks?

See anything similar? How about these?

There’s a few slightly eerie examples here. Fashion models do it. It’s great for pregnant women. Presumably knowledgeable, old guys; prominent, African American men; and buckets of doctors agree! And “facts”, you can’t forget those. Facts never lie, they just are. Right? Note: How To Lie With Statistics teaches us otherwise. (4) The similarities between the cigarette and mask images are pretty hard to miss.

Advertising (aka a form of coercion) is an age-old societal function. Specifically, it is the use of mass communication to persuade the public to respond in a specific way to a specific topic. Even the ancient Romans openly discussed how to persuade people. For example, from the examples above – cigarette companies want to persuade you to buy cigarettes and mask companies want to persuade you to buy masks. Which brings us back to the question from above. Why though, would great heaping wads of money be spent by government entities to not-force you to #maskupnd ?

It cannot be that masks stop viruses, as 1) there is no proof that they do (I’m talking about a live action microscopic video of an actual covid infected person actually coughing from within their mask) and 2) the effectiveness of a specific mask in stopping anything is not a primary concern. Sure we’ve all been told “masks” stop the spread of covid-19 but does the quality or ability of anyone’s individual mask matter? Just look at this mask that is a top seller on a major online retail site:

What happens when you cough into a mask anyway? Do the big bad germies flying out of your mouth simply vaporize, disappear from the face of the earth, de-materialize upon impact with the mask? No. Just a little science here:

We can tell ourselves all day long that “masks show respect”, “masks show that you care” and “mask-wearing makes you a hero”. Yet, if we are happily accepting the pretty, pink, princess mask above in the same mental category as a full-face respirator, the kind used by infectious disease experts, that actually do stop viruses, there’s something wrong.

When the CDC reveals that 85% of people who tested postive for Covid-19 wear masks, mostly or always and the state of North Dakota is both 3rd in the nation in Covid testing and 3rd in the nation in covid cases per 100,000 residents AND we are also wearing an awful lot of masks. We need to ask ourselves why. We learned not to trust the cigarette science. Should we learn not to trust the mask science?

Should we trust our governor when he tells us to #maskupnd ? Might we wonder at the political theater of it all when our elected officials, put on a mask off camera only to step onto camera and be seen taking the mask off? (2) When our governor, a 64 year old successful businessman, squeezes out a couple big fat crocodile tears on camera over the injustice of “mask shamming” when not only have there been zero reports of “mask shamming” there have been hundreds, if not thousands of reports of “non-mask shamming.” Yes, even in North Dakota. It sounds a bit like gas-lighting. What you saw happen, really didn’t happen.

Maybe we should change our state catch phrase to, “We’re all guinea pigs here” or “The Coercion State.”

(1) https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-health-bismarck-north-dakota-fargo-61813dd740735bc79c6cb37b791d8d6e

(2) https://www.rt.com/usa/502103-pennsylvania-lawmaker-jokes-about-masks/

(3) You can read the full “Doctors smoke Camels” advertorial at http://www.fulltable.com/vts/t/tob/doct/03.jpg

(4) https://www.nateliason.com/notes/lie-statistics-darrell-huff

(5) Just one of many articles on cancer, oxygen and carbon dioxide: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23454852_The_impact_of_O2_availability_on_human_cancer