I do think a lot of them realize this and would rather rule over a diminished empire than suffer that.

the clueless ones among them never got to experience nor learn about the affects of the lockdowns because they fled to places like texas that didn’t enforce ANY covid related precautions; i lived there during that time and, if it weren’t for the news, i would not have known that covid was a thing since absolutely nothing changed if you weren’t afflicted by it and even then there were plenty of posts of social media of people who nearly died; recovered; and still didn’t believe that covid was dangerous.