In recent months, many right wing journalists and pundits have expressed their displeasure with mask mandates promoted by President Biden and other leaders within the Democratic Party. Some ultraconservative journalists and political commentators have even suggested that mask mandates directly violate the First Amendment. To wit, these thinkers believe that ignoring mask mandates amounts to a form of free speech.

A Specious Argument?

In many respects, however, these comparisons to protections enshrined within the Constitution are specious and even dangerous. They are analogous to the famous example of the supposed "right" to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater.

In other words, certain exemptions from absolute "free speech" are designed to protect the public in the same way that the First Amendment is designed to protect the public from government overreach. When speech is specifically designed to be harmful to others, for example, it risks voiding the legal immunity usually afforded to the speaker by the First Amendment.

Intent and the Law

In this example, a person ignoring a mask mandate may infect others with COVID-19 if that person is currently infected with the virus. This form of behavior potentially puts the lives of others at risk: Far from an expression of "free speech," this behavior is in fact comparable to criminal negligence. For all intents and purposes, moreover, the behavior may indeed be criminally negligent even if it is not prosecuted.

The Power of Denial

What anti-mask commentators therefore often forget is that spreading a life-threatening illness to others is not less dangerous because it is unintentional. Nor is the moral weight of such negligence lessened simply because it is inadvertent.

But this is perhaps beside the point: The root of most criticism relative to the mask mandate issue lies in a worrying capacity for denial of the serious health effects of COVID-19 in far-right political circles.

For individuals who have fallen under the sway of Donald Trump, the distorted belief that COVID is a mere "flu" that poses no threat to American citizens will enable negligent behavior in public. At base, in fact, this is an issue of conspiratorial thinking rather than one of honest discourse. Until such conspiratorial thinking is addressed and accounted for, it is unlikely that much will change in this regard.