The people who are out there pushing back against vaccine mandates, masks and social distancing are, by and large, the same people who would be railing against the “your opinions and belief system are as valid as anyone else’s” crowd*. At least, that is my conclusion based on the coverage I’ve seen and experiences I’ve had. Instead it comes back to good ol’ 'murican individual liberty. FU can’t tell me what to do, right? Unfortunately that ideal has run headlong into the defining public health crisis of our time.
The poor education part though, that is bang on. Conservatives spent decades dismantling US public education systems, defunding education in Black and minority communities, and fighting back against teaching things like evolution, all the while fomenting distrust in scientists.
*This of course is the classic conservative caricature of progressive values like tolerance. Many of the anti-vax/anti-mask protests are straight up organized by white supremacists now.
