[Radim]

> Even worse is that people I've known and respected my entire life, intelligent people … are defending, and even calling for the escalation of these tactics.

It's a spectrum. More a question of temperament than intelligence:

Some people desperately wish to told there's someone out there, looking out for them. A wise enlightened leader, preferably in a tie or a white lab coat.

"Just follow orders and everything will be alright."

Others prefer to assume responsibility and evaluate risk on a case-by-case basis. This end of the spectrum is more sparsely populated, because it requires personal struggle and sacrifice. So such people are always a minority, with obvious implications for democracy (AKA the rule of the majority).

Most people oscillate somewhere in between, swayed by pragmatic incentives and currents of social zeitgeist.

[etherael]

Well said. Living through this has been a real eye opener on the nature of humanity and civil society. The veil certainly has been lifted.