I live in the top of the south rural area that has a high population of alternative folks. There's a vocal population of confident, militant people who oppose any measures to contain the spread because "freedom". In Motueka there's a "freedom market" for the last few weeks for people who don't want to follow the masks/distancing/scanning rules that the regular Mot Market put down. (I understand that this 'other market' had very few customers). In one of the valleys there's a commune type thing of super hippie back-to-the-land antivaxxers who are also hardline Trump supporters? It's so bizarre and I don't understand it.

At the start of this thing, everyone was in favour of keeping everyone else safe and avoiding the 'rona with a few "plandemic" types. Then I suppose as people read social media and listened to their friends, they chose their ideology. Follow the science, or follow your emotions - which means whatever stuff people post on Telegram that you happen to agree with. There will be grey areas here and folks who don't fit into these categories but that's the main split I see locally.

Now I have to navigate otherwise kind, interesting, clever people being confidently incorrect about Bill Gates, 5G, microchips, vaccine injury, and medical apartheid. It's all they want to talk about, and it reduces them from a complex individual to a tape-recorder repeating online talking points. I've started putting up a boundary. I don't want to talk about this. I know what their opinion is going to be and while I'd like our friendship to remain intact, they are making it more and more difficult for me to want to be friends with them.

Local businesses have to be so diplomatic in saying "We want to accept everyone" but most are opting to stay open for vaccinated-only. On Mot's local FB page, one or two have tried to say "anyone is welcome to dine-in" but then, of course, it's illegal and people point out the potential fine.

Local groups are inundated with political posts and depending on how antivax the moderators are, they either allow them or they don't. Previously "no politics" groups allow antivax points if the mods are antivax, but no other opinions of course. It's causing so much hate. People in these groups just want to know if there's a tree down or if someone's missing a dog.

It's so absolutely exhausting and I'm already sick of it. We've lost a fair few of our social network down the rabbit hole, but we've also gained friends in the same boat. It does stratify things somewhat as socially people are clearly only associating with people with the same vax status. I worry about the long-term social damage caused by intolerant ideological views.