Nice synopsis of many relevant social science and herd/tribe mentality considerations. I always think back to the lesson (nearly) everyone's father mentions about looking both ways before crossing the street: "Always look both ways before crossing the street - even if the crosswalk says its OK to cross." "But dad, if a car hits me, they'd be in the wrong!" "They'd be in the wrong, and you'll be dead. They win." Laws don't matter if nobody follows them (or in the case of masks, everyone follows the optional MANDATES which sound a lot like laws and have clear/immediate social consequences for not complying with so people treat them like laws even though they aren't technically laws but midwits don't bother to think critically about the situation so change is all but impossible)