You can be passed out in the back seat but a car crash is still going to kill you

That’s not what the saying means, obviously -_-

But the meaning you're presumably referencing isn't applicable to this conversation.

No, it very much isn't. Reality is reality, and people's perceptions of it are often quite incorrect.

The phrase is not a defense of some hyper relative worldview. It’s commentary that the perception of the many facts, which of those are highlighted, which are ignored, which biases shine through and which narrative wins, etc., at the end of the day, is the reality you must deal with. Reality is downstream of facts.