Is Westminster School the best school on Earth? STATESMOM returns

[statesmom]

I have a lot to say, don't know if anyone remembers the thread. Let me know if you want to hear from me.

My family choosing to move to Europe (they are also EU citizens) rather than endure another four years of Trump in power isn’t ‘virtue signalling’ - it’s simply what they will choose to do.

I’m pleased that you concur with the fact that Trump is a criminal. I’m absolutely flabbergasted that you would question labelling someone who jokes about assaulting women without their consent a misogynist.

So sorry to hear you are flabbergasted; hope you get over it.

DJT is not a misogynist. That is a fact.

(ps: that's just a joke. it's my opinion!!!! I know the difference between fact and opinion. You do not.)

"Alternative facts" strike again 😂

Of course their saying this, if true, and you repeating it, is simply trying to signal your virtue.

If Donald Trump is president, how much, in actual fact, will that matter to your relatives' daily lives?

Their commute into work, their children's schools, their days at work, their travel, and so on.

It will realistically hardly matter at all and I would bet a monkey to a mousetrap that they, just like 99%++ of people who aver such nonsense, will not upend their lives over who is in charge of one branch of the Federal government.

It is indeed virtue signalling, as clear as day.

@statesmom - what ‘realistically matters’ to them is their daughters’ reproductive rights. And those children going to school on a day to day basis that you mention? My family also fear another Columbine.

Gun control and abortion law have been issues in the US for a long time of course, but these issues aren’t exactly improving under Trump. My family despise him and what he stands for - so a second term would be the final straw for them, and their cue to leave.

There are tons of women here spewing factless, hysterical hyperbole, virtue signalling to an anonymous group that their closed minds do not stomach conflicting views.

maybe not tons... perhaps just one?

In any case, I've always wondered what it's like not being able to vote in the most important election in your lives. Sunak v. Starmer? It doesn't make a dime's bit of difference.

But a Trump versus a Biden? The UK, and Europe, will be changed for decades.

OP you're contradicting yourself :

If Donald Trump is president, how much, in actual fact, will that matter to your relatives' daily lives?

Their commute into work, their children's schools, their days at work, their travel, and so on.

It will realistically hardly matter at all and I would bet a monkey to a mousetrap that they, just like 99%++ of people who aver such nonsense, will not upend their lives over who is in charge of one branch of the Federal government.

According to you, one minute the presidential election is the most important event on the planet, the next it hardly matters at all.

Perhaps I am contradicting myself, but I don't believe so.

On foreign policy, I do believe the lives of people in Europe will be changed by the next Trump presidency. He'll probably remove all troops from Europe, pull out of NATO and let the Europeans try to be big boys again. Leave things to the Italian navy.

On domestic policy, I don't believe that the poster's family living in the US are illegal aliens, drug dealers or shoplifters. If you are a normal, God fearing law abiding American going to work life will probably not be drastically altered. However, if you are an illegal, or you are a drug kingpin, you'd best leave the country because your life is going to get a lot worse under President Trump.

In any case, it's probably all academic because it looks like he just won the election today.

Unfortunately I think your last sentence is correct.

However, I think you overestimate any impact in Europe and underestimate the impact on American society of another 4 years of Trump in office.

Posters on MN always mention gun violence as a concern for living in the USA, which absolutely can't be denied.

My non Oxbridge, non Ivy university educated DH was offered a 5 year placement in Seattle, promotion to director, housing, very good salary, health care package.
We said no way.

Perhaps now America will take gun controls seriously but I doubt it with their obsession with the right to bear arms. The shooter was a registered Republican.

Who cares what party he was registered with?

The right to bear arms is in our founding document; it is in fact the 2nd things the Founders codified (after important things like freedom speech and religion!!) and they recognized that it was a right that inheres in each person; we are born with it; it is a right given to us by God. They did not vouchsafe this right; they said this natural right shall not be infringed. It was sort of belts and braces.

Americans will never give up the right to defend themselves and their families. We are not a bunch of monkeys taking directions from some guy in a cubicle on M street. We wouldn't be like the sheep in this country who slavishly listened to their betters during covid.

I have several guns in our place in upstate New York (not in Manhattan unfortunately). Why shouldn't I have them? Why do you wish to take them away from me? These are the important questions.

An armed people is a free people.

After Dunblane, the UK will never follow the US approach on guns although I thought there would be positive change after Sandy Hook.

An armed people is a free people
The murdered children killed in US school shootings are not free, they are dead.

I'll not mention the murderer's name. I prefer to remember Gwen Mayor and her pupils.

I agree with you. Dunblane shows why we should not allow ordinary people to keep guns. I recall that the murderer supposedly had them for target shooting.

I had a relative who lost out on the chance to represent her country because her particular weapon was one of those banned, even for target shooting. It was the right decision.

I remember being in our school's library when news of Dunblane came through. Never again.

Before anyone brings in the "But knives..." argument: I've broken up a fight involving a knife (at a secondary school). If a gun had been involved, the likelihood is that I wouldn't be here today.

I would argue that an armed people is a people living in fear.

Watching the attack on Trump, it was lucky none of the supporters behind him weren't injured or killed.
Say what you want about Starmer and British politics but at least you wouldn't be risking your life going to see him speak.

Also there weren't automatic rifles when the founding fathers wrote the 2nd amendment. I'd say it's not a sign of an advanced civilisation that is unable to adapt and modify rules written hundreds of years ago.

I think that one of them probably is dead, unfortunately. There are reports of two people being seriously injured; one was shot in the head. A doctor at the rally performed CPR

Oh no, that's horrendous.
Innocent people attending a political rally.

Bringing the thread back to the original subject, at least the OP never had to worry about a school shooting at Westminster.
OP would this have been a worry if your DS had gone to school in the US ?

I often think about the Sandy Hook children - I was working near by at the time. The survivors graduated from High School this year.

I sent my kids to school and university in the US, and did not lose any sleep over fear of school shootings, tornados, of them being hit by a car as they walked or biked to or from school, or killed in a car accident as I drove them. Otoh, I crossed my fingers every time they went out for a night with friends driving.

They all had accidents from playing school sports or doing PE that required emergency room or dentist visits. Water polo, basketball, swimming and diving, and even badminton weren't without risk. American football accounted for three serious injuries, including a concussion that needed a full week to recover from. My heart was in my mouth at every meet and game.

Things may or may not have improved now when it comes to rugby in British and Irish schools, but I knew several boys back in the day who suffered nasty injuries both at school and university level, in one case a life changing incident.

Sport isn’t being shot dead.

Whatever you want to say, it is unnecessary to involve Op's son.

I agree, and every one is an unspeakable tragedy. Unimaginable.

Surely you then agree with me that the millions of children murdered in the womb from abortion is also unspeakable?

Although the first is a tragedy due mainly to mentally ill people, the second is an atrocity due to immoral people.

Both should be addressed with public policy. Yes?

No. Our abortion law deals with non viable babies. Being shot is killing a child that’s living. I want choice for women. I cannot understand why you are in this country @statesmom? You seem a million miles away from our values. Plus unbelievably provocative.

No. You are all, frankly, hysterical regarding the rate of school shootings.

Hysterical.

I mean, do people just parrot things they hear and that's that? I do think so.

Looks like the total school shootings in the US this year (ALL schools, including universities) is 32:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1462731/number-of-school-shootings-us/

Out of a population of 330 million.

Do I mean to minimize that? Absolutely not. It is 32 more than acceptable.

But these poster saying: "Oh, I didn't have my son move to Seattle because of the possibility of school shootings" or whatever is, frankly, innumerate and idiotic.