They aren't brainwashed. You are exhibiting your brainwashing right now by acting like they are somehow wrong for saying they want to social distance. You are insulting them in public for no reason other than to try to draw attention to your stupid substack. There is literally no reason for you to publicize this except to try to insult them. I'm sure if they saw it they wouldn't be happy with you. Why can't you just respect what other people want to do and not go f****** talking about it to a bunch of strangers on the internet? It's also possible. They just decided they actually don't want to hang out tonight and they use that as a convenient excuse, rather than possibly upsetting you by just saying they'd rather stay home. Maybe you should keep this s*** to yourself