The point about the electric shock experiment is presumably just that some people will follow rules however damaging they are because most people naturally defer to authority.
I understand the point, thank you. And while I read your post in full, I strongly disagree that actively inflicting increasing pain on another human until possible death is comparable to adhering to social restrictions in a pandemic. It isn't just the authority that is driving people to do that; it's the evidence all around them, the knowledge of a pandemic, and the very obvious reasons for not mixing freely while it's ongoing. My NHS friends on the front line give me important information too.
I think drawing on things like Hitler Youth and the Milgram experiment for this is really just a way for people to justify their decisions, which they are making for their own benefit, as critical free thinking in the face of oppressive authority. I think that's self-aggrandising bollocks. I've got more respect for the posters who are just owning the fact that they're sick of it to the point of no longer giving a fuck.
There also seems to be an assumption that people who are sticking to the rules are madly reporting every gathering of 7 or two people indoors that they suspect. These are two different things and again, it doesn't help claims of critical thinking to conflate them.
Which is not to say I'm unsympathetic to what people are saying, as I've been stating. I absolutely understand all the points about terminally ill relatives, people with severe mental health problems as a result of this, doubly vaccinated people and so on. That's why I'm absolutely not judging them or reporting them (hardly know of any anyway).
But it's also why I'm sticking to the rules until 17 May (I'm not vaccinated yet and don't expect to be for a while). I think that if those of us fortunate enough not to have dangerously vulnerable loved ones and so on do stick to it, we will offset the effect of those who aren't so lucky and aren't sticking strictly to the law. No, of course nothing will magically change on that day, but rules have to be binary or there's no point having them; we might as well never lock down if we have no dates for when it lasts. I've waited at red lights when there was plainly nothing coming at 3am; yes, I know it's safe to go, but the rule is, stop at red. If it's "stop at red when you personally think you should", we're collectively fucked. Yes, it means I wait unnecessarily sometimes but that's the trade off for safety. I can hack it, and I can hack another few weeks of this, shit as it is. So I will, and hopefully that will help to offset those who can't.