That is not Safetyism, which is what we're talking about here. The latter being a neurotic fixation on "staying safe" – whatever the cost – when there is minimal risk.

As for example driving (or riding in) a car without "buckling up" for . . . "safety." Most people do this now reflexively, chiefly because so many people haver been conditioned to regard not doing it as "unsafe."

At least two generations – the Millennials and Gen Z – have been raised this way. Which is to say, they know no other way. They were taught fear from their earliest years. Of cars – and driving – in particular.

They have no fond memories of running out to the family car and jumping in to go for a ride. They were strapped in for the ride, a process that's very much akin to what is done to unruly prisoners in that both are restrained. The difference being the prisoner has the dignity of knowing it's being done because they are afraid of him.

Millennials and Gen Z were taught to be afraid. It's an important distinction. Cars were not  – for them – a cool toy that adults got to play with and which they looked forward to playing with themselves when they became adults in their turn. Which – in the case of their older brother and sister (or mom and dad) Gen X'ers, when they were kids, happened when they turned 16 – at which point they were eligible for a driver's license that endowed them with the same rights and responsibilities as an adult. They were legally free to drive anytime they liked and anywhere they liked (assuming they had a car and assuming it was okay with their parents). The point being the government did not treat them like children for the next several years – until they turned 18 and (finally) got an an adult driver's license and were free (at last) to go wherever they liked, whenever they liked.

By then, of course, the damage had already been done – and years before then.

Many never developed much interest in driving and so never got a driver's license – and so remain children even though they're over 18. They still depend on adults to drive them where they need to go. Those who do drive are afraid to, many of them. This is understandable. Wouldn't you be afraid of a thing you'd been taught to fear as dangerous from your earliest memories?