Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is being called out for opposing masks in public, while choosing to wear one on a plane when she travels. This photograph has been viewed on Twitter more than 1.5 million times. However, this narrative is a fraud.
Hey @laurenboebert! I think it’s great you voluntarily wore a mask on the plane to protect yourself and others, but why not say that. Oh wait. That’s right. You lie to your constituents and the no mask is all a show for them. pic.twitter.com/k9n2y9xTjy
— Dr. Haidak (JP), Psy.D. 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏳️🌈 (@JHaidak) January 30, 2023
The story is that,
- Masks are no longer required on planes
- Here’s Boebert wearing one
- Even though she publicly has railed against masking requirements, refusing to comply
The problem is that this is not a new photo. In fact it was taken back when masks were required to be worn on planes. At best it shows her refusing to engage in civil disobedience, preferring to make it to her destination than get kicked off of a flight.
Here’s the first example I found of the photo being used in the past, in June 2022, to claim she’s hypocritical on masks, since federal transportation mask mandate enforcement ended April 18, 2022.
She really does! She even scrolls through her hashtags when she’s complying and wearing her mask in the plane. #LaurenBoebertIsSoDumb pic.twitter.com/qSHqEj4a03
— Bosco (@zeebee00) June 9, 2022
And here’s that photo in October 2021, when the federal transportation mask mandate was still in place.
Apparently it’s only tyranny when the cameras are on. Here we have Lauren Boebert on a plane wearing her mask without any issue. People like her, Gaetz and MTG are nothing more than carnival Barkers meant to create attention to make us look at them while the GOP robs us blind! pic.twitter.com/Di0fR8nDA8
— Richard N. Ojeda, II (@Ojeda4America) October 2, 2021
As far as I can tell, the photo does date to October 2021. She defied the mask mandate on the House floor and was fined $500 for it, but complied with the rule on planes.
Of course from the photo you can tell that she’s flying American Airlines Airbus A321 coach, and American’s flight attendants were more aggressive in kicking passengers off of flights over masks than United’s who tended to just write up passengers at the end of the flight. You can often ignore what people say on social media whenever air travel is involved.
Is she sitting in business class? How the hell did she suddenly get $40 million in assets?
— Bob Resists (@ResistsBob) January 30, 2023
Looks like first class as well. Saving this pic.
— Djv (@Darlajeanv) January 30, 2023
So does this mean she’s grandstanding over masks, complying in one case and not another? Maybe, or that selective disobedience is how she made her point – where personal cost was lowest. But there’s no question that the narrative, spreading like wildfire around social, that she was essentially lying about her position on masks – wearing one when it’s no longer required at all – is completely false.
Many people, though, strongly believed that once vaccines and treatments became widely available there wasn’t a case for making masks mandatory, but that it’s completely appropriate to choose to properly wear a high quality mask to protect oneself. So wearing one voluntarily wouldn’t be at all inconsistent with arguing against a requirement that masks be worn.
So what if she chooses to wear a mask? Mandates and choices are two very different things.
As a highly vocal congresswoman that narrowly won her re-election, she will be dogged by those that will do everything possible to unseat her in the future.
She represents some group of people in Colorado; for everyone else, they are just sticking their nose in something that they can’t do anything about.
People who aren’t smart enough to realize the difference between fighting mandates and doing something because of personal choice aren’t really smart enough to be worthy of anyone’s attention.
Click bait. She’s not my favorite person but how is opposing a mandate and choosing to wear a mask yourself in conflict? I can choose to wear purple socks without favoring a mandate that everyone must wear purple socks. Anyone that doesn’t get that is either really dim or hopelessly politicized.
Well at least you are being honest enough to admit this was an old photo when masks were mandatory in planes. Extremely misleading title and a complete waste of time. Sad that its such a slow news day for the view,,…
Am not a fan of this imbecile, racist, and country bumpkin, but who honestly cares? If freedom in America is freedom at any cost, then why can’t she wear a mask on a plane if she chooses too? Grow up already.
@bexho2000 – you’re missing the point I think, which is to highlight there’s this thing going wide in social media and to dive into what I found (which is that it’s an old photo, etc)
Not following the issue here. The FAA mask mandate ended in April, 2022 and the picture of her sitting with a diaper on her face is from October, 2021. Is the criticism that she didn’t make a scene and sat like a sheep with her mask live everybody else?
Even if she choose voluntarily to wear a pointless mask – and its pointlessness is more well proven now than it was then – does that infer that we should all be coerced to wear pointless masks?
So I think this is a fake criticism, but even taken as true for sake of argument it still makes no sense.
Typical Liberal brain to not distinguish between an individual who personally chooses to do something but supports the freedom for people not to do something. Actual Conservatives don’t believe in the government forcing people to do anything. Your body, your choice is a conservative belief. Your body, the government’s choice is a liberal belief.
Choice versus a mandate is not an issue. However, she consistently railed against the effectiveness of masks. Either way, once i found out it was an old picture, during mask mandates, this turned into the worst story ever. Who cares? She compiled so she could fly somewhere. And now I’m taking time to comment, ugh, I hate the internet
There is a big difference between requiring a mask and someone wearing one. There is nothing wrong with her wearing a mask, I cannot believe you ran this article.
Labeling everything as “either, or” or “use versus them” is exactly why we are where we are as a nation. Liberals pointing to the “conservative mind” and conservatives doing the same with liberals is what truly reflects people who are not worth of attention.
While I do not agree with 99% of Ms. Boebert’s politics, she is entitled to fight against mask mandates while choosing to wear a mask. Her fight is with the extend to which the government should be entitled to tell its citizens what they can and cannot do. Where the rub comes in is where folks choose to draw the line on government intervention. Many of the people fighting mask mandates are the very same people leveraging the power of government to intervene in a woman’s control over her body, what entertainment parents CHOOSE to allow their children to witness and so on.
Ms. Boebert was elected by her constituents. The conversation ends there.
Perhaps the person next to her said that she was uncomfortable being at high risk i.e. old age, immune suppressed . For the congressperson to insist on her own rights would have been worthy of condemnation. Not this.
Wearing a mask is smart. Refusing to wear one is dumb. This pandemic has shown how dumb people are and how poor peoples’ medical judgment is.
The Left can never be satisfied.
Kudos to Gary for doing the detective work.
It shows you that the mainstream media (aka propaganda outlets) cannot be trusted. They will reuse photos from decades ago if necessary to attempt to brainwash people.
What? A hypocritical Republican? Say it ain’t so. And look at all the useful idiot posters flopping around trying to explain how this is apparently a good thing. You are so interested in owning the libs that you’re defending one of your “do as I say, not as I do” masters here who would willingly let you get sick and die if it increases her chance of reelection by 0.00023%.
Errrmmm… Dr. Westbrook… you said “Your body, your choice is a conservative belief. Your body, the government’s choice is a liberal belief.” Can you explain that to the conservatives who are rallying against that very first “belief” of yours by banning abortion?
@Ed – These are all individual tweets by individual users on Twitter. How did you turn that into “mainstream media” or “propaganda outlets?” Who’s attempting to brainwash people? Or who’s been brainwashed by non-mainstream media?
Great point, Gary. We are so used to instantaneous coverage that when we take in any form of media, like this picture, we tend to assume it was just taken. The date and time stamps on tweets (but not the underlying image) reinforce this implicit inference that it is “live coverage.” I automatically assumed it was from 2023 as well. Now I am second guessing everything. I have a family member who is a FA for one of the big 3 in the USA. A few years ago she sent me a picture of a man in domestic first class holding an emotional support pig (a big hairy one, no cute baby one). I just assumed she was the FA on that flight and took the picture. Now I am going to have to find out if she got the photo elsewhere and was messing with me!
What’s the story here? That social media is a den of ghouls that try to tear people down? Everyone should know that by now.
Agree with me = mainstream
Disagree with me = propaganda, fake news
Agree with me = savior
Disagree with me = groomer, brain washer
Agree with me = detective
Disagree with me = witch hunt
Agree with me = smart
Disagree with me = dumb
It’s wonderful how respectful we can all be about diversity of thought.
@Contrarian…Excellent use of the “apples & oranges” comparison.
Great discussion and thanks for putting in context. It is not hypocritical to comply with rules even if you don’t agree with them (esp. if you need to do so to travel!)
What bothers me are not people who wear masks but the ones who do outdoors, or driving solo, or non-N95/N94 masks that provide no protection to the person wearing them. These people are either stupid or virtue signalling.
@Boraxo – What bothers me are people are people who are bothered by someone else’s behavior that has absolutely no negative effect upon them.
P.S. – Non-N95/N94 masks DO help provide protection to the person wearing them, just not nearly enough. But more importantly, they help provide protection to others around the wearer, something that you probably don’t consider important.
You’re an idiot for posting this……what difference does it make? Honestly, I’m dying to know.
@Tom – Speaking of idiots, ellipses have three periods, not six. But beyond that, do you feel you added to the conversation in any way? I’m dying to know. Or did you just have one too many Cuttys at happy hour and your wife and girlfriend both dislike you intensely, so you’re gonna take it out on Gary?
JHC, are people so damn stupid as to not understand the difference between choosing something for oneself while being opposed to FORCING it on the world?
@toomanybooks – I’m still floored by the number of people who just don’t get that the reason that things needed to be FORCED is because those same people wouldn’t choose on their own to do something for the greater good, and felt that going AGAINST the greater good was a way of proving their own independence and freedom. #Assholes
She looks ready for a Janet Jackson video
@ Dr Westbrook
Typical conservative brain to claim freedoms which suit individual religious beliefs and right wing anti-science covidiocy bolstered by fake news and misinformation, only to deny such freedom when it is sought by others who don’t comply with their world view. Just another DRWA.
Kinda like the subject of the post – the hypocrisy of promoting the freedoms to infect others through neglecting to take elementary community health precautions (actually brining lawsuits against basic community heath precautions) and to enable mass murder by gun ownership, but not to allow women freedom over their own bodies.
an individual who personally chooses to do something but supports the freedom for people not to do something.”
Actual Conservatives don’t believe in the government forcing people to do anything. Your body, your choice is a conservative belief. Your body, the government’s choice is a liberal belief.
It’s an old photo from when there was a mandate. Liberals truly are the dumbest creatures on earth. Read the comments to the tweet. Those idiots would fall for it 1000 times out of 1000.
Derek, the only things masks do is make stupid people feel safer. Sorry to break the news.
Babblespeak, nobody is dying. All four masks you are wearing right now are doing absolutely nothing to keep you safe. Liberals. Nuff said.
YoYo, who gets to decide what things need “to be forced”? You? Stupid Democrats? Do you not see a tiny little problem with that? Mask mandates were forcing something that did more harm than good.
@bill – Nothing says “expert” more than our resident epidemiologist, bill. Regressives. Nuff said.
Thank you for calling out people who post lies on social media. To me, that’s the scariest part of the internet … anyone can post anything anytime. And such a huge percentage of people believe whatever they read online. I find it horrifying that someone’s life can be ruined by what’s posted about them.
I immediately went to comment section once I saw this post
@Doug: may I kindly remind you that the mask mandate was issued by a Republican led political machine at the time? Sure, there were plenty of Republicans who opposed the mandate, and some in power even tried to overturn the mandate only to find that, once it was issued by authority of the highest power in the country (i.e. POTUS 45), there was no way to avoid it. And 45 endorsed it, eventually, as well: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/07/20/trump-calls-mask-wearing-patriotic-tweets-photo-wearing-one/?sh=1ecbc1da1cbe
@Boraxo
My son in law occasionally wears one out of doors or driving by himself.
He’s not stupid, he discovered that when the air is smoky or when certain pollen is in season he feels much better when the mask cuts that out.
But why does it bother you anyway? How does his masking when you think it’s unnecessary hurt you?
The liberals and crazy Twitter leftists hate her almost as much as they do Trump. Even if the photo was from today there is a big difference between choice and mandates.