Exactly the problem. People have long been conditioned in everything they see and hear to believe that other people are responsible for their happiness and wellbeing. Whenever something goes wrong it their lives, their first thought is that someone else is to blame, and that didn't start with covid.

Conditioned is the right word. This is an imposed slave mentality that depends upon outside influences to feed, clothe, house them, and make them safe, and it cuts off any ability to think of their own solutions for providing these things. They have given their own power away to the point where they don't believe they have any, except for what they might bully others into doing for them. It is the twisted logic of socialism that sounds like wisdom and compassion, but it is only the fragrant cheese in the trap.

The truth about their situation is even worse than that because it also screws them up spiritually. It is impossible for them to connect with God until they get this straightened out because taking responsibility for one's own actions and attitudes is where one starts to make that connection. No lie comes from God, and He doesn't connect with them, so lying to one's self creates a circuit that can only loop around to connect with one's self (effectively making a person his own god). That circuit is only unplugged when a person recognizes truth, admits that it is the truth, and begins to want it no matter how damaging it is to the lies he or she believes.