U-Haul Growth Index: Florida Has 10 of Top U.S. Growth Cities

To explore this further - I question why people should be forced to wear a mask just so others can have the reduced risk conditions that enable them to go about their normal lives. Why don’t those who are worried about COVID simply quarantine themselves and let everyone else go about their lives freely? The notion that wearing masks suddenly gives risk averse people the safety they desire doesn’t make sense. On the one hand, I hear extreme fear of COVID despite its very low infection fatality rate. On the other hand, despite those fears, people seem to be OK with leaving home if there are mask mandates, even though there still is a nonzero risk of them being infected. So which is it - because clearly if this is a deadly virus everyone should fear, the only reasonable stance is to self-quarantine - in which case it doesn’t matter what others do. This makes me view mask mandates as wholly arbitrary theater, something that is now a political football for those who favor statist approaches.

As for your claim that lockdowns have not existed anywhere - that depends on what you feel a lockdown is. Certainly various cities and states have restricted activities of different kinds to different degrees. Claiming there has been no lockdown feels disingenuous to me.

Lastly, regarding authoritarianism: I consider local/state/federal governments implementing vaccine mandates or forcing businesses to violate the bodily autonomy and health privacy of their customers/employees to be authoritarian. And I say that as a fully vaccinated person. I prefer a system of governance where individuals retain agency and can decide locally what to do with their bodies, what the risks are, and what risks they are willing to tolerate.

Whether something is a "a basic courtesy" (ie. how agreeable it is) has nothing to do with whether the state mandating it counts as authoritarianism. I'd certainly be crying "authoritarianism" if the state mandated that I had to thank the bus driver.

>Or are you referring to lockdowns that have not existed anywhere for 1.5 years

they shut down restaurants (and various other businesses), didn't they? They also banned events and large public gatherings. Or does it not count as a lockdown unless there's martial law and a soldier with instructions to shoot to kill at every street corner?