I also take exception to the term "sheeple." Let's please give it a rest.
It's not unreasonable for a non-knife person to see a large, aggressively styled knife and think "weapon", particularly if they don't know the person holding it. Even within the knife community, there is far from universal acceptance of the notion that our knives are merely useful tools for peaceful purposes. Many of the threads here on BF discuss the "tactical" and self-defense capabilities of knives; in other words, their capacity to function as weapons.
If you whip out an Emerson Combat Bowie or a Benchmade Bedlam in a public setting, you should expect to upset some people (and, to be honest, that was probably your intent). Regular people, not mindless, ovine drones. Attenuating your behavior to the social setting you are in doesn't denigrate your man- or womanhood, it just means that you are consenting to function as a dues-paying member of the society you live in and from which you benefit. Likewise, if you park your Hummer in two spaces, fart in an elevator, or eat an egg salad sandwich on a packed subway, you're not asserting your god-given liberty, you're being a jerk. Not that you're a jerk, OP, I don't know you.
To answer your question, OP, yes. I live in a major city and I always carry a knife here, usually a locking folder, as well as a multitool (LM PS4) and usually a backup (SAK Pioneer). Our knife laws are somewhat vague, but I am not overly concerned with what the police think of my knife, as we don't have much to talk about generally.
But I do give consideration to the setting I'm in. For example, I feel comfortable carrying my UKPK at school, and the few times I've klacked it open no one has batted an eye (most of the people in my program are in the trades, and are probably not representative of the greater student body). The UKPK is probably my least "threatening" folder apart from a SAK.
At work I feel I have more leeway, and will usually carry my Mini Grip or Sage 5. Both are kind of goofy-looking and not at all "tactical." I still try to use them discreetly.
If I'm carrying my ZT0450, I better know everyone, because it screams "dangerous switchblade," not "benign cheese slicer." An unfair characterization, I think, but one that I am aware of and sensitive to.
In most cases, I also have my SAK Pioneer in my back pocket. This I don't mind whipping out at a restaurant to cut my steak (hate those god-awful serrated chainsaws they give you, no better way to ruin a good piece of meat).
I can't bring any of my tools, even a LM Squirt, into a ballgame. I don't like it, but that's what it is.
It seems like you already have the solution to your problem: you said you carry a backup, so if that is a SAK or traditional then you're set for whichever situation you find yourself in.
Common sense and common courtesy: don't wear ratty sneakers to the symphony, don't wear a ten-gallon hat to the movies, and don't whip out your XL Espada at the PTA meeting.
And stop saying "sheeple."
