Arnold Schwarzenegger tells anti-maskers ‘screw your freedom’ despite warning of rising fascism in America

Former Republican governor and action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger told Americans who refuse to get the Covid vaccine or wear a mask to "screw your freedom", because with great freedom comes great responsibility.

The treatise against individual rights in favour of the collective good came moments after the Austrian-born actor warned of rising fascism in America by comparing the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol to Adolf Hitler’s Brownshirts before World War II.

"There is a virus here, it kills people, and the only way we prevent it is get vaccinated, get masks, do social distancing, washing your hands all the time, and not just to think about ‘well my freedom is being kind of disturbed here’. No, screw your freedom," Mr Schwarzenegger said.

He went on to explain that people cannot just say they have the right to do whatever they want when their actions affect other people. Rather, wearing masks and taking vaccines is no different than obeying the rules of the road while driving. If people don’t wear a mask they are responsible for killing anyone who catches Covid from them and dies, he said.

"We put the traffic light at the intersection so someone doesn’t kill someone else by accident… you cannot say, ‘no one is going tell me that I’m going to stop here at this traffic light here, I’m going to go right through it’, yeah, then you kill someone else and then it is your doing," he said.

"Yeah you have the freedom to wear no mask, but you know something, you’re a schmuck for not wearing a mask because you’re supposed to protect your fellow members around you, it’s just that simple," he added.

Mr Schwarzenegger was speaking to promote the new book Here, Right Matters by Alexander Vindman, the retired army lieutenant colonel who served as a key witness in former president Donald Trump’s first impeachment proceedings..

The two shared an affinity of sorts after Mr Vindman saw Mr Schwarzenegger’s video response, holding the sword from Conan the Barbarian, to denounce the US Capitol riot on 6 January.

Mr Schwarzenegger said he was compelled to make the video after seeing the similarities and potential dangers to the rise of fascism in Europe. He was born and raised in post-war Austria before immigrating to the United States in 1968.

"And I’m talking now about before the Second World War how my father and people in Austria and Germany and all over Europe were actually lied to by a regime that was very evil," he said.

"And when you start lying to people and the nation experiences these kinds of lies and deceits and cheating and corruption, and all this sort of thing, it goes down a dangerous road and it has to be stopped at all costs."