I'd argue that when the movie was released, there has been unease ever since. But I quickly dismissed it as just being the way it is and just a fun story.

In more recent years I watch the news of world events dubiously, events don't seem to make sense and the subsequent actions are equally as bizarre. The response you speak of resembles the response to conspiracy theories as a whole, when a documented.event is exposed but quickly hidden, people become hostile when pointing out the facts.

The NPC meme become mes surreal when you just stop and watch people go by outside. People not going anywhere or just standing and staring at the wall. Once you notice one, you notice more. They are everywhere.

Or, we simply live in a highly digitalised propaganda machine of a society driven to make us stay edgy and fearful of the apocalypse through brainwashing, like on the movie They Live.