What happened to this new normal btw? Everything has reverted to pre-pandemic life here as it seems. Wasn't the expectation that we're going to have to live suppressed for all time?

Conspiracy theorists just move to a new conspiracy, they never go back and evaluate how they got swindled the first time.

Those who follow absurd conspiracy theories, like the theory that mask mandates would never go away and that it was somehow solely a power play by government leaders, cause massive damage to society. And it's true that most never re-evaluate how their incorrect beliefs came to be before getting sucked into another conspiracy/grift.

You seem to be reducing the issue to someone feeling superior to another.

And it's quite possible that some of the left-wing political response to shelter-in-place orders and mask mandates, namely deciding to end them as policy, is because of right-wing (and some left-wing) pushback. I just don't know how much. Though I think it was stupid as hell the way they ended both social distancing and mask mandates back in July of 2021, when infection rates were still higher than when the mandates began.

These campaigns achieved nothing.