Third, people online have very certain and dogmatic opinions about what we should do now. Rush Limbaugh and others on the right think the lockdown is a Democratic plot to get President Trump. When the governors of Georgia and Florida opened up a bit, many commentators on the left treated them as if they were serial killers — as if what they were doing was an obvious atrocity. In truth, the people of Georgia and Florida are not worse off than before, and there’s evidence they’re actually better off, at least so far.

In real life, people are less dogmatic and more uncertain — just trying to feel their way toward a way forward. They’re seeking the right balance between safety and normalcy.

They’re not waiting for politicians to tell them what to do. People locked themselves down before the governors acted and they’re staying home even where governors have opened up. The important decisions are not being made in statehouses. They are being made at the family and community level, as networks of people try to figure out what to do, based on their particular local context.