And that's because, as you know, Jessica, all those Big Lie followers are constantly bad-mouthing science. And that's because they don't really give a crap about what happens to anybody else as long as the dollars keep rolling in. Money and Power. Those are the current gods that Americans seem to want to worship these days.

And like @LindaCaroll below says, it's pretty much the same in Canada. These days I and my partner are the odd balls out when we go into a grocery store with our masks on. Or a cafe, or just about any store. We strategically plan to grocery shop when the number of people is likely to be the least; late evenings, early mornings. And we love to hike but for sure, these days we avoid popular trails and look for the ones that are least used. It makes a big difference! Maybe the views aren't as grand, but the experience of encountering only a few people during the jaunt rather than dozens is well worth it!

I think it comes down to something you said in another of your posts. If I remember correctly it was along the lines of "what people most fear is giving up all the conveniences they are accustomed to", or some version of that.

But in the spirit of humility and forgiveness, I also want to add that a lot of people honestly trust and believe the people that are telling them it's ok to be anti-mandate, anti-vax, anti-mask. They've grown up trusting these people and voted for them and until now everything was pretty much ok. And as we all know, the hardest thing in the world to do is to change an ingrained viewpoint. So it's going to be a long hard conversation and I welcome your voice and feelings. I know most of the time, people like "us" are just preaching to the converted but you have to start somewhere.

So keep at it because YOU ROCK!