I want you to hurt like I do: the mindset of anti-anti COVID politics

I think the answer to this question is critical to understanding how reactionary politics function in America in 2022:

The fact that the American iteration of the Tonka Twucker anti-vaxx protests are persisting even though there are virtually no COVID mitigation measures in place is illogical if you think anti-anti-COVID politics are primarily motivated by “freedom.” But that’s never been the issue — there was never any widespread Republican opposition to the many vaccine mandates that existed before 2020, for example. The issue is that they just don’t care about COVID and the deaths and illnesses it causes, and therefore don’t think anyone else should either, and they resent anybody reminding them about their own nihilism. This was Trump’s position, and it became even more compelling after Biden won, removing any political cross-pressures to actually mitigate COVID. Ron DeSantis screaming at high school kids for wearing masks voluntarily is the perfect encapsulation of what the anti-anti COVID in American politics is all about, and “freedom” has jack shit to do with it.