Man wears mesh mask to fight 'Hitler-type' mask requirements

In a viral video, a man from Florida can be seen wearing a mesh mask when he went shopping at his local Walmart. In the state of Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has not made masks mandatory in all public places. Some counties, however, have strict rules in place to make masks compulsory for all those outside their homes. In Tampa, where the man in question lives, masks are required in order to gain entry to public spaces such as supermarkets. In order to "make a point" about the "Hitler-type" mask requirements, the man wore a mesh mask generally worn when dirt biking or playing paintball.

The black mask, like a large sieve, had many open vents through which respiratory droplets could escape. Simply put, the mesh mask would have made no difference, he may as well have worn no mask at all. At first glance though, it may appear that he is wearing a regular mask. As soon as the man left Walmart without facing repercussions for endangering the lives of those around him, he decided to record a video about his "successful protest" and post it online. Almost immediately, other Twitter users, shocked and frustrated, picked up on the video and criticized him for his actions. After all, it was quite irresponsible of him. The video soon went viral, reports New York Post.

In the clip, he calls the requirement of face masks a "Hitler-type" ruling. "So I just left Walmart, you can see it behind me," he says. "So I’m in a county where the state just passed a, I don’t know what it is, the county commissioner made a Hitler-type ruling that says, ‘You know, I just decided that everybody has to wear a mask if they go inside of a store. So I purposely wore this mask today. You can see my mouth through it. You can see me talking. And it just goes to prove that it’s not about safety." The man went on to state that the ruling was about controlling everyone's personal freedom instead.

He states, "If I sneeze, if I cough, if I talk or spit, anything I do is going to come right through this mask, obviously, because this isn’t a mask designed to use in hospitals or anything. This is just, I think, for dirt biking, so you don’t bust up your face. The point is, nobody looked twice at this mask. Nobody gave me any s**t. Nobody will give me any s**t, because it’s not about safety."

Did the man really expect Walmart employees to be the ones enforcing a government mandate? Yes, he did. "What it is about is compliance," he affirms. "I complied, I was a good little sheep, I had a covering on my face, but it doesn’t protect anybody from anything, and not one person said a word."

Over the past few weeks, conservatives have claimed that the requirement of masks is an example of a fascist dictatorship when that could not be further from the truth. In order to protect public health and safety, we need everyone to play their part. This man, however, was only concerned about his own selfish need to be "smarter" than other folks.

He ends his video saying, "Not one store employee, not one other person in the store, not even the security guard that happens to be standing and watching this particular Walmart. They all looked at it. They all looked like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting,’ but not one person said a word."

After several incidents of confrontations gone wrong littering the internet, it is silly for him to expect to be confronted. Maybe if we all looked out for each other instead of making up conspiracy theories, we would finally defeat this pandemic.