Recently had the misfortune of spending time in California and New Mexico before escaping back to red territory. It's full clown world there, everyone is wearing a mask in stores and a big majority wear them in their cars and outside. Also these places feel very lawless, California in particular has homeless everywhere, way more than it did even four years ago. These states are doubling, tripling, quadrupling down. Red States are getting back to regular life but these insane communist states are probably never going back.
We have literal communism right here in North America and communists never keep to themselves they always seek to gain more power over others.
Please understand that most of us in blue states who wear masks in shopping centers, do it because we have to, not because we believe in it. Because we all need groceries, and wearing a mask in a grocery store isn't a hill I desire to die on. I go in, do my business, and rip it off the second I leave. Most others do the same. Leave the big population centers, and you will rarely see masks outdoors, masks in cars, etc. In fact, in restaurants, most don't even bother me when I walk around the place without a mask. But I get it. My governor sends his goons out to these places to monitor mask and social distance violations. A restaurant in my town got their liquor license pulled for this nonsense. So I don't blame them.
It is a social phenomenon based on the ratio of red-pilled to sheep, which produces a bi-modal result.
-If there are too few people stand up then they are far outnumbered by the authoritarian goons and take the full brunt till everyone complies.
-If there are enough people that stand up that the goons can't keep them in check then it gives others courage to do the same.
The result is that in some areas everyone complies, and in some areas almost no one complies.