"it could still lead to catastrophic outcomes to you as an individual"

True, but an individual is vulnerable almost by definition. A schizophrenic neighbor may decide that you are an alien in human skin and kill you. (I have a friend who barely survived precisely such encounter, being shot no less than 9 times from a CZ75. I have seen the (healed) entry wounds, that guy was extremely lucky.)

Nevertheless it takes a government to ruin lives of an entire nation.