It is so fucking creepy how there are people who have become freaked out by the idea of being around other people on a psychological level. Like not even during "the pandemic", just crowds/large gatherings being instinctively terrifying to them now. Fucking how does that happen? Pictures/videos of maskless crowds look just as ordinary and mundane to me as they did in 2019; it's what I expect to see, not spaced-apart people all wearing masks.
I agree it's very creepy, and what's just as bizarre is the major cognitive dissonance of it all. All around these hyper-paranoid people, even in Democrat-led states with harsher restrictions, people ARE going to the gym, movies, and to parties. They're having weddings. Birthday celebrations. All kinds of events. Heck even Florida is fully re-opened. Business and life goes on as usual. I can tell you even in places with stricter lockdown measures, there are covert operations that have been going on all year, generally speakeasy in nature, be they gyms, nightclubs, etc.
And yet...millions aren't dropping dead like flies. Hospitals aren't overcrowded. The infection rate fluctuates, as it will with any new virus, but it has largely remained low for months on end.
Even with a "spike" in case numbers in Florida since the state's re-opening, deaths are STILL quite low. People are by and large just fine.
And yet.
The paranoia only continues, building, snowballing along with the moral panic and outrage. People are angry lately. Furious. They almost seem to loathe each other for daring to go out and live their lives. I've even seen some wish death on others or "hope they die of COVID" because they're "so selfish and evil."
Which, to me, seems a rather evil mindset, ironically, but everything is opposite day with the paranoid.