But it's also about mindset.
As I wrote elsewhere, one of the most magnificent contemporary pieces was written by Jeffrey Snyder, A Nation of Cowards. While the piece is overtly about concealed carry, it is much broader than that. To wit:
Is your life worth protecting? If so, whose responsibility is it to protect it? If you believe that it is the police's, not only are you wrong -- since the courts universally rule that they have no legal obligation to do so -- but you face some difficult moral quandaries. How can you rightfully ask another human being to risk his life to protect yours, when you will assume no responsibility yourself?...One who values his life and takes seriously his responsibilities to his family and community will possess and cultivate the means of fighting back...He will never be content to rely solely on others for his safety, or to think he has done all that is possible by being aware of his surroundings and taking measures of avoidance.
What Snyder wrote applies literally to every situation under the sun, not just thieves in the night or bad dudes in an alley but bureaucrats in lab coats and college faculty in sport coats. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
But for a moment, consider those recently redpilled, or liberals smacked by reality. Do they possess the mindset Snyder references? In the face of peer pressure, these mildly freedom-curious lot will give up; They'll cave.
For the redpilled, not only do they need the will to persevere through this peer pressure, but in many ways they need a robust pro-liberty mindset (or as a Diana calls it, a robust post-apocalyptic skill set) that is exercised often.
As the meme goes, one does not simply become Deplorable over night. Sure, it's easy to see the immorality of what's going on. It's also easy to say, for example, "no, I'm not getting vaxxed." But, as difficult as it may be for people who've had a Framer's mindset all their life, noobs don't just follow up that new attitude with the ninja-like thought process and access to information to facilitate a successful redpilling in an instant. That process takes some time.
Yes, there ARE many people - backed by friends with Snyder's mindset that's exercised often - who climbed through the muck and mire of the conversion process successfully. They observe a society where "Question Authority" has morphed into "Obey Authority" and advance past the pillar of salt.
For those noobs who haven't yet built a Snyder mind, we need to bring them into the fold. Liberty grows when the field of participants expands, not by shrinking ourselves to glory.
Living here in Jurassic Park I am immune to peer pressure. I said no when all around ran to get their shots. Luckily I only suffered minor ostracism at the height of the hysteria. Even more difficult I resisted wife pressure.
I conceal carry when going to a defcon 3 or above destination. Not as often as I should though.
I do believe that the left has used behavioral science techniques to brainwash the susceptible. Call it peer pressure, conditioning, body snatching or whatever, but the number of people who robotically repeat the party line is shockingly high.
I live in a blue metro area in flyover country. My take is there was genuine fear in people during the early stages of the pandemic because of lack of information. I'd get dirty looks from people at the grocery store because I didn't have a mask on between the car and the entrance/exit. There are still plenty of maskers around but I don't see the fear in their eyes..