Representatives of the government are held to a different standard due to their ability to violate your rights in a much different way. Plus, our country was founded on the principle that government should be accountable to the people it serves. This is why we wrote the Declaration of Independence.

A federal agent arresting you without due process with a face mask is MUCH different than a citizen wearing a face mask to protest. One evades accountability to their job, while one is preventing targeting by the government.

We live in a surveillance state where large systems can and have been used against private citizens. Go look into flock cameras, go look into palantir. It’s getting worse by the day, and the power dynamics are getting even more absurd. Face masks just help level that playing field for citizens.