Understanding it would entail taking responsibility for actions already taken, and the harm already caused by those actions. People want to be "good". They wa

Understanding it would entail taking responsibility for actions already taken, and the harm already caused by those actions. People want to be "good". They want to feel that their actions, if not perfect, are at least morally defensible. This seems to lead to a sort of tipping point where once a person has acted in a way that would make them "bad", it becomes easier to construct a new narrative where refusing to wear a mask is heroic and patriotic, than to process the remorse of having made a terrible mistake. And that's especially appealing if there is an entire group of people eager to tell you that you're right and good, in order to reinforce their own worldviews. The bottom line seems to be that in order to lead people back to reality, you need to find a way to let them feel good about their choices. Maybe that means nodding along when they say "The science was unclear. We couldn't have known." I'm not sure. I've been thinking about this for a while now, having relatives in Sweden who just don't seem to take the pandemic seriously. The problem is that their institutions still haven't reached the point of admitting that they were mistaken, so the public can't seem to begin that process either.