You ought to be smart enough to know that "X is safe, but Y is not safe" is a gross oversimplification.As usual you can’t see it. The problem is as soon as you require universal masking again you are telling people “it’s not safe”. If “it’s not safe” the 1/3 of the pop that’s in a panic (including the teachers unions) ask about the other restrictions. It’s possible to decouple them but nothing in the history of this suggests the authorities, particularly in the blue states that might do this while the red ones refuse, will do that as it will take effort to depanic that 1/3. You yourself once cases go up and universal masking is called for will be demanding they shut down indoor dining and bars and you know that.
If we are asked to mask up this winter, don't read too much into it. All it means is that we need better anti-virus measures in winter because that is when covid spreads more easily. So you do the easy things, like masks at the grocery store, in an effort to avoid the hard things, like school closures.
Refusing to do your part just makes it worse. The numbers go higher, which makes the harsher measures that much more likely.