There, indeed, is the rub. The "you can't tell me what to do" reaction is deeply ingrained, not just in the ethos of the USA, but in human nature as well. It is, after all, the basic sin for which Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden. At a very fundamental level we humans don't like someone else telling us what to do.
What happens then, especially in a culture that celebratres individual sovereignty, is that the reaction becomes more emotuonally driven. You know as well as anybody that it is nigh on impossible to use logical persuasion to influence, even a little bit, an emotional conviction. The only way to change a deeply rooted emotional response is to use emotion. It may sound a bit cynical, but what might help more than anything right now would be a well recognized bastion of conservatism who was willing to stand up and say, "wearing masks and well monitored contact tracing are good things." I'm thinking of someone like Colin Powell or Condolesa Rice. The problem, given the current state of things, is that even those two would be shouted down and branded as part of "the conspiracy," effectively silencing them.
I'm afraid that the only effective agent of change in the current hyper sensitive culture would be a provably effective vacine, distributed in such a way as to negate or minimize the fears of micro-trackers and over-the-top government snooping.
Of course, you and I know that a true heart change can only come about through the power of the cross. So keep doin' what you're doin.
