It's both. You can still wear masks in areas where they aren't explicitly necessary. In liberal cities in many "red" states, most people wear masks. It's 100% a "culture war" thing at this point. When I was moving from CA back East a few months ago, I saw practically nobody wearing masks even in rural CA.

That's not even mentioning that it's the people who are electing governments which don't require these basic public health requirements.