There have been 48,098 new COVID cases in New South Wales today. I am just one Australian who has not contracted COVID since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in January 2020.
Today, I wanted to buy a Duplo blocks set for my son. He loves his Duplo blocks. I searched online to find a local toys, games and hobbies store called Casey’s Toys. I made a note of the toy store address, hopped in the car, and by 11:55am followed Google Maps to the toy store location.
On approach to Casey’s Toys, a foreboding sense came over me. I had the feeling that Casey’s Toys might discriminate. I have never been inside a Casey’s Toys store so I didn’t know what their policy was regarding COVID-19, vaccine mandates, face masks, or segregation in general.
Hardly one to watch the mainstream news daily updates on new COVID-19 mandates and health regulations, I honestly believed that restrictions such as face mask use had been relaxed. I assumed we don’t need to wear face masks inside stores, and that only places like hospitals require face mask use. That was my understanding as I walked, mask-free into the store.
Requested To Wear A Face Mask Inside Casey’s Toys
Casey’s Toys was a large store with a whole Christmas and Santa section on the left side of the store. I spied a massive play train set. The price tag on most toys were quite competitive. To the right of the store entrance was a main archway to enter into the main area of the Casey’s Toys store.
Conscious that I did not have a face mask on, I brushed past the cobwebbed QR codes check-in table, and popped in. There were a half dozen customers inside the store browsing around various areas. Nobody came close to me. I kept socially distanced. I was pretty much doing everything correctly, as per outdated social distancing rules.
One lone female employee was organizing Play-Doh tubs on the floor next to the racks with Duplo block toys.
As I walked past the lady, minding my own business, within a few moments she asked, “Hi. Can I help you with anything?”
I looked back at her, somewhat surprised, with a feeling that she might say something to me.
“I’m just looking at different Duplo blocks,” I answered.
Her next question was, “Did you bring a face mask with you today?”
I said, “Oh, no, I didn’t bring one.”
I actually did. I had a face mask in my pocket, but I didn’t want to get it out.
The female employee didn’t assert that it’s a condition of entry, but she did mention that customers are required to wear a face mask.
I said, “I didn’t know that. I thought that they stopped asking people to wear face masks in stores a while ago?”
“No. The government has had that new requirement for a few weeks now. They’re even going to go into lockdown in certain shops in the next few days,” her voice arced up.
I smiled at her when she told me that news. I asserted my own assumptions. In a pleasant voice, she pointed out that I am wrong.
Every person inside Casey’s Toys had a face mask, except for me.
I was under the assumption that due to high daily cases of Omicron, the government is looking to lock down hospitality and health. I assumed the government is not thinking to lock down toy stores. To me, it sounded like this one toy store employee may have been quite reactionary.
So I turned directly towards her, to ask in a slightly confrontational voice, “Do you need me to leave?”
She diffused, “No. You’ve already come into the store without a face mask.” She acquiesced that because I’ve walked into the store without a face mask, I can remain in the store. That’s what I did.
I was going to tell her, “I was living in China throughout the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic before Australia even had its first lockdown lady.” But I didn’t bother because people like her wouldn’t really understand the relevance of the reference.
Winning Permission To Remain In The Store
I did feel slightly uncomfortable after that. But the point is that I won. I stuck to my guns with my values in this business. Now I was able to freely browse inside the toy store mask-free and vaccine free without any trouble. I was pleased that this business did not handle me in the nasty way that the woman at Spotlight handled me. That was positive.
Turning to the Duplo blocks on the shelf, I took one box set to the front counter. As I did, I noticed one other male who had just entered the store without a face mask. I thought, “I’m not the only person that’s taking a stand here.” It was comforting to see.
The two ladies at the front counter treated me the same as any other person in their store. They served me with a smile. I smiled. Who has time to listen to the news regarding all these new restrictions anyway? I’ve turned the news off. Facebook banned me. I am not so invested in the COVID-19 mandates enforced in Australia during the coronavirus pandemic anymore.
By 12:30pm I popped back in the car and drove home. My kid loved the new toys.
The Censorship Of Vaccine Free Voices
Soon, I found that Facebook will go ahead and delete my account, an account I have had for 15 years, since August 2007, vanished like a fart in the wind, for the high crime of upholding liberty. There is no way to appeal the decision.
This creates a problem with social logins when I am no longer able to authorize an app or website to use my Facebook profile so as to log into other sites. The Facebook social authorization pop-up won’t work on any website that requires Facebook login. The Facebook ban essentially locks me out of a lot of websites.
Later, I also found that when I post a new comment on LinkedIn, it treats my vax3dom.com hyperlink as spam. LinkedIn breaks the link up into bits of normal text and bits of hyperlink to quash its use. That adds up to two social media giants that have banned me for antivax views. Facebook has banned my account completely. LinkedIn has banned my links. The only places left available are Twitter, Telegram and Gab.
Maybe there is censorship happening of the vaccination pro-choice business directory because it doesn’t happen to the Diary of a Mad Chaos website.
To me, in a free society, that’s problematic to know my voice is being canceled out simply because I provide a platform for non-discriminatory businesses to list their business.
That’s how businesses operated in 2019 before the global coronavirus pandemic began. There were no vaccines to make people feel superior. People did not have their lives and livelihoods destroyed because they said no in a free world.
Why can’t businesses operate like that still now? That’s how it’s been since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Australia is a free country, or at least, it was.
I just find it bizarre how something as normal as allowing everybody into your business is being censored these days, kicked down, and chased out of society in a rush.
Diary Of A Mad Chaos is a daily diary written from March 1996 until today, of which individual books and book series have been created, namely “The Lost Years” an exploration of young, entwined love, the “Wubao In China (猎艳奇缘)” book series which provides an extensive comparative analysis of the cultural differences between Eastern and Western societies, and the book titled “Foreigner (华人)” an exploration of race relations in Australia.
