All the weak, tepid "opponents" of lockdowns in the US, focused on marginal reductions in tyranny largely only served to make it harder for people to engage in mass public civil displobedience and protest. They didn't stand up when it would have been relatively easy and combat the claims that lockdown protesters were just selfish jerks who cared more about "getting a haircut" or "going to the gym" than grannies' lives... So that narrative won out, leading to a situation where virtually every other cause of death from drug overdose to cancer is up, children have been severely set back in social and intellectual development, the economy is a wreck, inflation is through the roof, and virtually no one in government has been held accountable.
Fauci is out there giving interviews to fawning reporters, Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsome are still in power, the CDC is still an embarrassment.
I don't know if it could have been stopped two years ago given how one-sided the media is and how much was driven by hatred of Trump, but it sure would have been nice not to be one of the only people willing to say anything about it at the time.
What's interesting to me here is the support we're seeing for Chinese protesters.
China's more overtly authoritarian lockdowns have made it harder for Westerners to ignore the victims and support the state - even though that's exactly what they did here. It makes me wonder if there is even a version of reality where people will ever think through where their ideas are actually going and change course before it gets this far.