US Election

This is a difficult one to add comment or value to as I'm not saying anything to have an argument or my opinion challenged/challenge anyone else, but it is never as straight forward as some people like to suggest. The scepticism of how the media handles things in the US really is valid, regardless of where you sit opinion wise.

- Take the issue on masks. It's different over there and the anti-mask 'force' is far greater than here. Yes Trump played down masks and no denying that, but you've got Fauci, the US equivalent of Chris Whitty, saying they don't really work and they act more as a placebo to make people feel safe. He's flipped and flopped his opinion on masks more times than the Tories have changed their mind. He's also over there acting like a celebrity so there's an instant lack of trust on what he says.
- To add to the mass gatherings that were criticised so much by the media. The most recent mass gathering had 200 members of the National Guard test positive for Covid. Hardly getting a mention in the media. Neither is the fact they were forced to spend 24 hours in a cold garage after being on TV for the handshakes and the show of unity - and the PR shot with the homemade cookies.
- The Paris Accord. I'd much prefer the US to be in it than not, but they didn't pull out just because Trump was/is a climate denier. It was the 'deal' to be involved that the US challenged. Someone might fact check me on this, but the US reduced their carbon emissions last year whilst two of the biggest players increased their carbon emissions (or something like that - might be wrong). It's great we're accelerating sustainability, but sometimes what appears to be a more sustainable way of doing things isn't actually so. I've experienced that trying to find replacement materials for plastic in my day job and I'm probably spending two days a week trying to come up with sustainable initiatives
- Quite rightly we hold all governments accountable for any failure on Covid policy. But the US is currently responsible for over 30% of global vaccinations. They're behind per capita, but accelerating massively the last week or so as some states open up vaccination centres in pharmacies, etc. In 44 states cases have dropped by 10% the last seven day average. In 24 states hospitalisations by Covid dropped by 10% too. But the media report no plan? If New York and California hadn't introduced, and then revoked, shocking fines for anyone giving a vaccine to someone not in the priority group it would be even higher
- Also on the above. Biden's headline was 'a million shots a day' which was shared as 'a million vaccines a day' before being corrected. The US has already hit 983,000 doses a day.

I've never tried to change anyone's mind who thinks Trump is deplorable, there's no credible argument on that, just try and explain why US opinion is like it is and use some of the facts out there to support that.

 

You need to get on the London Tykes Zoom then and change that mate!

 

My post was more about what's going on in the country in relation to some of the comments made before. I think the 'Trump bad. Anyone else good' is a slam dunk, as the Americans would call it, in terms of being a debate that anyone needs to have.

The points I made aren't even an argument to be honest or necessarily a point of view, it's just about showing there's more to it than what a lot of people see or understand. We claim a biased, corrupt, favoured (delete as appropriate) media here but it's off the charts over there.