to think we really are 2 completely different cultures - the USA and the UK - just looking at the 'rebellion' taking place

[chomalungma]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8228769/Bleak-figures-China-US-economic-hit-virus.html

I know it's only some Americans. I know that it's a massive country with many many more people than the UK

But these scenes are astounding. People flocking to beaches. Protesting about lockdown.
Protesting with guns about lockdown

You just can't imagine these scenes in the UK at the moment.
Especially not the Ohio Zombie picture

It just amazes me - sometimes you think we are very similar to the USA, and then many times, you realise we are completely different.

I haven’t rtwt, so very Canadian apologies.

Early in the thread someone asked why Canadian culture is quite different in some important regards. A few things I’d like to add; Americans had a manifest destiny attitude to the landscape and the Indigenous people, whereas George III instructed that the Canadian colonies treaty with First Nations people (granted this was ignored at times), so we lacked the might is right attitude for the most part.

I will also say that I grew up watching way more American telly than anyone in the UK, including local news. And while it doesn’t necessarily represent the majority of Americans, and very probably not urban Americans, there is a constant banging on about how America is the “greatest democracy on earth” that I always found embarrassing (felt they were embarrassing themselves that is). I think that chauvinism, combined with a lack of international knowledge on the part of a lot of Americans, has created a subculture ripe for a demagogue like Trump.

Finally, someone upthread mysteriously said that western Canadians own guns (for shooting animals). I suppose some do, ditto central Canadians and northerners, and eastern Canadians. But the vast majority of us don’t. I have never seen a gun and don’t know anyone who owns one. Vancouver, the largest city in western Canada with a population of 2.5 million, has a handful of gun deaths and it’s virtually all gang-related. Our culture, with regard to guns (religion, politics, and health care) is very different to the Americans’.

@MadCattery - do you think private rooms are a good or bad thing? I don’t see the point of private rooms. I’m in Canada, have had multiple (free) surgeries and births and always shared a room with at least one other person. Why do you need your own room? They have curtains around the bed for privacy. I think if a patient feels well enough to worry about sharing a room, they’re probably ready to go home.

Hannah

“By the way, most of the protests in the US are paid for and organized by people working for George Soros for the purposes of inciting unrest.”

You said this, you are the hateful person.

You are also incredibly stupid.

How on gods earth you can claim that Trump fans protesting is funded by Soros. It takes a while other level of crazy to rationalise this utter nonsense. This kind of comment makes me despair for the human race.

Bravo Ulver for calling her on this. Paid protestors? That doesn’t sound too far from claiming people are paid actors at mass shootings.

This was written in 1920. Man must have had a crystal ball . . .

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

― H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

Why do you need your own room?

Privacy. Not having to put up with another patient's visitors. Not having to listen to another patient's phone calls. Not sharing a bathroom with other people. Having my husband spend the night with me if I need him (sofa bed in the room for that purpose). These are just a few reasons.

The USA isn't a single amorphous body, there are widely differing attitudes from state to state, between North and South, between the East and West coasts and between the coastal and inland states.

@ulver

Your lack of reading comprehension today does not equal me being hateful.

Such a typical lazy way for an ignorant person to try and shut others down through accusations of hatred, simply because you dislike facts. (And you’ve got one glaring mistake in your post up thread. But I’m not going to do your research for you.

By your own logic you are a misogynist for criticizing me.

This thread is about Trump fans protesting lockdown. You claim that Soros is responsible for all the protests in the US.
Where is your EVIDENCE for this outrageous claim?

Yes George Soros conspiracy theories are Anti Semitic.

@SenecaFallsRedux I guess it’s just a different attitude to hospitalization. Visiting hours are quite short here and I never minded other people’s visitors. And the idea of having relatives camped out in the hospital just seems so odd to me. When I’ve been in hospital I’ve needed rest and would not have wanted a spouse or other relative in my room all day and night, that sounds awful.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/stories-49584157

Don’t forget Soros was targeted with a Terrorist attack by a right wing nut job. Spreading these lies is enabling the far right.

Eight months into Trump's presidency, in August 2017, neo-Nazis held a torchlit procession in Charlottesville, Virginia. Clashes with counter-protesters ended in tragedy, when a white supremacist drove a car into a crowd and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

Among US right-wingers it was soon claimed that the violence was orchestrated and financed by Soros, in order to tarnish the reputation of President Trump. And they said the key to the secret plot was a man called Brennan Gilmore, who filmed the car being driven into the counter-protesters. Right-wing radio host Alex Jones claimed Gilmore was paid $320,000 a year by Soros and was part of a deep-state coup to oust the president.

@ulver

I am not engaging further with a person that already called me stupid and anti Semitic.

I have no interest in conversing with someone that responds to others that way.

@Ulver....Its not just Trump fans that are protesting. Its people who desperately need to get back to work

@AmIxrazyorwhat......you have no idea what you are talking about. Millions of Americans are just like me. My mother ran away to the States when she was pregnant with my sister. Evedintly the UK had a nasty little habbit of illegally adopting out children of unwed mothers. I was born to two illegal immigrants to the US but an American Citizen myself and has spent more time on UK soil than American. I split my time growing up in Cardiff and West Virginia. I served in the USAF not the UK but I lived on an RAF aair base for 12 years total. I have an NHS number and a SSN. Two of my children were born at Addenrooks in Cambridge. My grandparents are still alive and kicking in Cardiff. My oldest is living in NewMarket as we speak. So what am I? Am I American? Or am I Welsh American?

HoldMyLobster

^Detroit has a huge number of people whose water has been cut off due to bills default. They are in lock down with no running water, toilets or anything. Handwashing ?

Google says...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/12/detroit-water-shutoffs-unpaid-bills-coronavirus^

That family mentioned in the story had their water cut off in 2015 because they couldn't pay their water bill. That families in the US don't have access to running water in their homes for FIVE YEARS due to poverty is absolutely disgraceful. I'm genuinely staggered that any Level 4 country has people denied access to clean water because of their income. And that's 5 years after the global recession. So sad for those families.

@leaannb To me you are an American and I am proud to have you as a fellow citizen. 😊

That family mentioned in the story had their water cut off in 2015 because they couldn't pay their water bill. That families in the US don't have access to running water in their homes for FIVE YEARS due to poverty is absolutely disgraceful. I'm genuinely staggered that any Level 4 country has people denied access to clean water because of their income. And that's 5 years after the global recession.

That is truly shocking. Access to clean and almost unlimited water is something we take for granted here in the UK.

Ancestry is not irrelevant in the US. It's actually a question on our census form. It's an important part of our culture that we are all hyphenated or double barreled Americans. If an American says they are Irish, it's understood in the US to be shorthand for Irish-American. And the cultural aspects can be surprisingly strong, even after 200 years. That's one of the ways in which religion often plays a part. People will often be a member of the same denomination as their many generations removed original settler ancestor.

I think , other than language, we are , culturally and politically , totally different .We have much more in common with other European countries.

@MadCattery

I was shocked to read on here that after giving birth, new mothers in the U.K. are put in a ward with other people! I have not heard of anyone even having to share a room with even one other mother in at least 30 yrs. and midwives are somewhat rare, Ob-Gyns are typical. Even if you are very poor and have Medicaid paying your bills, you still have your own room. Every hospital room I’ve ever heard of has it’s own private bathroom (30 yrs ago, when DS was born, my room had a whirlpool tub for after birth. And that was a small town hospital) TV, meals chosen from a menu and room for DP to sleep. Our lowest Public hospital near here does have some semi-private rooms, meaning for two, but not in the maternity ward. So I don’t think it’s comparable to the NHS

But you have to pay for that via insurance though don’t you??

Even those that have zero insurance and get whatever they are given... don’t get it for free though do they? They are billed for their use of medical facilities? Potentially bankrupting they?

I would much rather be on a ward with 7 other women for 24 hours debt free than having my own room and having to pay back £7k for the privilege! Btw, you totally can pay for a private room in a private hospital here, but most women don’t bother as it’s often the same doctors looking after you, regardless of whether it’s NHS or private.

Also, where I live you do get your own room in hospital, there are no shared wards and that an NHS hospital.

Than having to pay back £7k I mean

@Hunnybears, my friend had Husky insurance (when you are unemployed or low income) when she gave birth to her last child, and it was free.

My husband’s employer pays for our health insurance, which enables me to book an appointment with any kind of specialist within about two weeks. It’s the people in the middle who sadly can get caught out.

@MadCattery

I gave birth in Houston in 1992 so just under 30 years ago. My husband lost his job and his insurance in the middle of my pregnancy so I had to use Medicaid. The only hospitals that would take it and offer me both prenatal care and labor and delivery was the general teaching hospital. I was in a ward with eight other women during labor and when I needed an epidural, I was put into a room with another woman. After I delivered, I went into a room with three other mothers.

A woman I know who had Medicaid gave birth in a hospital in Arizona six years ago. She didn't share a room with four women but it wasn't private either. She shared the room with another woman.

I had two children in England. One was in Berkshire and the other in Greater Manchester. I had two planned c-sections and I got exceptional care and I didn't get a private room either time. It was not a big deal and I didn't mind at all.

There is no cost to the patient at the point of use, but the NHS is not free.

Are there really some idiots claiming Soros is behind the protests? Mind blowing and evil.