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That was part of what triggered it. It wasn't just my personal life, but a bunch of people here (largely around lockdowns, though, which I haven't really heard concerns about in my personal circles) as well! But I figured the 'what broke your brain personally' question was worth following up with 'have you noticed this in your friend circles', especially because this is not exactly a normal place. Mottizens being angry about an issue doesn't necessary translate to much salience in the public at large.
Have you considered this lack of anger about lockdowns in your personal circle might be an artifact of your bubble? I know lots of people IRL who are still throwing fits about the pandemic response. And mostly normies, too.
Possibly. I grew up as poor white trash and my high school friends largely reflect that, worked in a factory and my blue-collar friends (the two I keep in touch with) reflect that as well, and then uni to a bog-standard office career - so plenty of white-collar colleagues and a couple of friends as well. All that means I think my bubble is hopefully a little more diverse in opinion than that of most people. It could be in part that I'm Australian - the response was largely bipartisan because for quite a long time lockdowns meant 'no Covid' instead of 'we still have Covid but you also can't go out to eat'.
There are plenty of people I know who are still mad about the pandemic response, but it all seems to be vaccine-centered. Though the 'Australian' bubble is very difficult to pop, it's not as if I can go out and meet new Americans in real life on a regular basis.
It's also why I'm asking, though! Maybe my friends weren't representative and most everyone was fine and had moved on. Maybe everyone was mad about lockdowns and didn't care about vaccines. I certainly didn't know, so I thought it was worth raising.
Australia seems like a pretty big confounding factor, here, and I'll grant that popping that bubble is not particularly reasonable. In America it's quite common to run into people IRL who are extremely bitter about covid measures for one reason or other; particularly younger working class men, or skilled blue collar labor(for whom lockdowns meant, in practice, that they were required to go to work as before but could not leave the house for any other reason), or devoutly religious people(who interpreted church closings as persecution, especially post-Floyd). And that's without getting into the rural-urban divide.
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