The Infamous Maskless Shop

On Saturday, some friends and I went to the shop. A year ago, you'd have said "so?". This year, it's gone semi-viral on twitter - Simon Dolan, Gillian McKeith, and David Kurten have all weighed in with their support. 

If you've been exercising your exemption, you know that going to the shop can be an ordeal. Workers who are misinformed of the law asking to see your exemption card, asking you to "wait outside" if you don't have an exemption card, some even ask what makes you exempt! It's all highly invasive and unnecessary (not to mention illegal). This is why we went as a group - for strength in numbers, to do something normal and not be harassed for it. Did we organise it? Yes. Did it make a statement? Sure. But the point to emphasise is that what we did was normal. We went to the shops together because we're friends. 

Queueing up outside the shop, we were asked if we were all together. Once we said we weren't, that was that. No one bothered us, and we went around the shop to find what we wanted to buy - I got some soup and a tiger bread baguette for my lunch, plus a bottle of rosé. The wine aisle was quite a popular choice for our group, and that's where the video was filmed. 

The police arrived after I left, but footage is available that showed they were unable to come up with a reason to arrest anyone and in the end they gave up and left. 

It's also worth mentioning that a young girl working in Tesco is reported to have cried at our presence. I will reiterate that we engaged in no disruptive behaviour, we didn't shout or make any aggressive movements. A girl was frightened to tears because the government campaign of terror has overwhelmed her and she's no longer able to process normal human behaviour as non-threatening. It is unbelievably tragic how much psychological damage they have done to her and I hope that she is able to recover once the regime ends. I hope we all recover.

The online backlash has been sizeable yet unsurprising. The usual drivel was brought out, but there were also several extremely nasty comments from people who know me personally, one threatening to kill us if we did it again. Needless to say, I have no concern of it being carried out, partly because I know this person and frankly I'd love to see them try, and partly because they'd be too scared of going near us with our faces uncovered. However, another reason that I do not allow it to upset me is that I know the reason behind their reaction is simple: people are lashing out because our normal behaviour has threatened the security of their denial. They all want to believe we're going to get ill and be hospitalised, but deep down they know that we haven't done anything unhealthy or unhygienic and it frightens them. They are no longer able to cognitively process normal behaviour. 

So despite their vile language and vicious bidding, we must recognise that actions like this shopping trip are done for them too. The recognition this video has received is so important in inspiring others to take the initiative and voluntarily return to normality. We must continue in our actions, in order to set them free from the mental conditioning they've succumbed to, and bring back their freedom for them. Have sympathy for the weak.