Some of this seems just human nature to me. Normalcy bias and reluctance to the social fallout of telling people "things are different" combined with that rebel

Some of this seems just human nature to me. Normalcy bias and reluctance to the social fallout of telling people "things are different" combined with that rebellious itch. But: in the states for a looong time it's seemed to me there's been a cultural spread of a privilege that could be roughly paraphrased as "my opinion & rights are as good as anyone's arguments or expert direction." I don't think this is just a cultural accident. There's some indication that phrases like "coastal elite" are deliberate fronts in a war to Other expertise, and reason to believe there are people who decided decades ago that affirming and spreading this stance was likely to increase their chances of having political power wielded towards their goals. Many Americans have long had the privilege of thinking this way if they want to, without many noticeably singular consequences to have to face. Some are going to try to hold on to this. Maybe some minority will even come through this without having been directly impacted and will continue to live comfortably inside that privilege. The difficult part is that there are many people who don't think this way who don't deserve the poke in the eye, but the behavior of others can bring it anyway.