US culture is founded on individualism at the expense of everyone else. A lot of people buy into the idea that any kind of government imposed action, even as minor as wearing a face covering that even helps the wearer, is a horrible tragedy and assault on their ability to make bad decisions. Those people are belligerent and numerous.

Politics, the party in charge decided that the best response was to pretend the problem didn't exist and maybe it'll go away. Wearing a mask is a very public sign that there is a problem.

Yeah. In Malaysia before covid, every flu season i could see some people(not a lot) start wearing mask, and people masked up as well in hazy season. Just before Covid become the pandemic i can see people already started to wear one before the mandate. Of course, nowadays some butthurt netizen will still jab at those wear mask here and there, but other than that, i still see people wear mask everywhere i go, which is a great thing. Sanitary and personal health shouldn't be something that get ridiculed.

But then again, it's Asia, and SARS is pretty big back then.

Maybe before the pandemic someone somewhere might have said something but not now. Even living in a rural area people don't say anything at all. I don't know where that user got the idea that you'd be ridiculed.