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.

Trump followers drink disinfectant and bleach:

www.wonkette.com/reports-of-bleach-and-lysol-drinking-increase-day-after-trump-sarcastically-suggests-it

Here is a more thorough article for a well respected source:

www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/25/845015236/nyc-poison-control-sees-uptick-in-calls-after-trumps-disinfectant-comments

From the article:

“ A report posted online this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that cases of exposure to cleaners and disinfectants have gone up 20% from January through March 2020 compared with the same time period last year.

The CDC notes that the spike in calls began in early March but cautioned that it could not prove a "definite link between exposures and COVID-19 cleaning efforts."

"Although a causal association cannot be demonstrated, the timing of these reported exposures corresponded to increased media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of consumer shortages of cleaning and disinfection products, and the beginning of some local and state stay-at-home orders," the report goes on to say.”

And this again demonstrates the problem with the media:

I don’t doubt that a leader making very stupid remarks causes some people to do very stupid life threatening things.

But all the headlines say the day after Trump said these stupid things the statistics were up for people drinking cleaning solutions.

They are encouraging you to believe he caused this. When you read a source that includes all the facts, you see that absolutely conclusion cannot be drawn.

These stats have been up since early March. Comparing anything that happened today with one year ago today doesn’t make sense at all.

Why would the media do that, try to make people believe something that obviously isn’t true?

And if you try to actually discuss these things openly because you care about facts and truth regardless of politics, you get branded with really horrible names.

And you can see how much people that are on one side or the other so desperately want to prove they are right, they are willing to hunt down “information” that “proves” their point and ignore and disregard anything that goes against it.

This is really what is wrong with the USA now. The lack of leadership, lack of civility, lack of interest in critical thinking. It cannot be laid at the doorstep of one dumbass President, it started long before he came on the political scene. Trump is not the cause, he is the result, the punishment.

Actually HannahYeah the "lack of leadership, lack of civility, lack of interest in critical thinking" does NOT speak to huge swaths of the American population. In my state our leadership has been extremely competent, civil and informed by a huge range of experts in public health, administration and various sciences. Our local University, the University of Washington (one of the best in the nation) has just built a brand new building for Global Public Health and it's faculty is leading the world in modeling for this Pandemic. Most people in the US (in normal times) are not getting their information from TV or newspapers unless that is online. I consider myself very well informed and I never watch TV and only read news online from a range of worldwide sources. If you take what media conglomerates are telling you about the American population as the whole story you will be very surprised if you talk to ordinary Americans. Just as the Republicans were shocked when Obama was reelected and the world was shocked by Trump's election. So much of American opinion is being missed and misinterpreted. Progressive Social-Democratic policies are very popular in the USA right now. You wouldn't know that a lot of the time because not enough ordinary people are being listened to. If the Democratic nominee offers them this Fall expect that person to be elected in a landslide.

Just like the Brexit vote was a huge shock in the UK. Huge swaths of the population and their concerns had been ignored for years, the Brexit vote was their opportunity for a protest vote and to make their voice heard.

I lived in Washington D.C. and as town it is very insular at cut off from the rest of the nation. It can be lots of the same people talking to each other and coming to conclusions that are uninformed. Just as the political class in the UK became too London focused and was unable to talk to the rest of the country in a way that spoke to their lives.

Remember that 3 million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton. To say Trump represents the American popular will is a lie.

A good example of effect leadership is Seattle's response to COVID-19, and the entire West Coast. They followed the advice of public health officials immediately. I was stunned to watch NYC and then Boris in the UK dither around for weeks doing nothing, while the entire West Coast was on lock-down. Of course, Trump has not been communicating at the Federal level, but at least as this article makes clear the professionals were there and available. Once we are back to sane leadership they should actually act appropriately, as they did for Ebola and H1N1.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/04/seattles-leaders-let-scientists-take-the-lead-new-yorks-did-not