Airbnb, or not to be, if you're headed to Washington DC: Biz cancels bookings over fears of inauguration insurrection

In preparation for the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, room rental biz Airbnb said it is cancelling reservations in the Washington DC, metropolitan area for the entire week and will block any attempts to make new reservations in the vicinity during that time. The house-hiring …

[katrinab]

Why didn't they do the same when the Scottish government asked them to stop taking bookings due to the Coronavirus situation, which in Scotland is equivalent to about 19 Whitehouse insurrections every day, and in the UK as a whole, equivalent to about 312 insurrections per day.

[Version 1.0]

I have never seen anyone walking around the Scottish streets carrying handguns and rifles. The Scots are generally much saner and and far more peaceful than right-wing fascists armed to the hilt. Get into an argument with a fascist and you will need to pull out your gun, but get into an argument with Scotsman and all you need to do is say, Let's go to the pub and I'll buy you a glass of whiskey" ... the only risk is a Glasgow smile.

[Danny 2]

1.0, I think you mean the only risk is a Glasgow kiss, aka headbutt, unless you are justifiably criticising our dental health. And you'd merit a Glasgow kiss for offering whiskey instead of whisky ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll educate you, a Glasgow smile is the same as a Chelsea smile. It's where someone is cut from ear to ear. A bit like the joker. It's a term that's been around since the 1960's in gang culture.

[Danny 2]

If that's so then Version 1.0 would defo be wanting a gun in Glasgow. I've never seen anyone with such a scar. I've heard of worse though. Some ingenious young villain used a penny as a spacer between two blades of a Stanley knife so that when they slashed they cut out a strip of flesh.

[katrinab]

US gun deaths per 100,000 population is about 10, of which around 6 are suicides. In the UK, it is about 0.1.

US coronavirus deaths per 100,000 population is about 1,000, in the UK it is about 1,500. A bit lower in Scotland for now anyway, a bit higher in England. Note those are 9- 10 month figures, not a whole year.

Coronavirus is way more dangerous than guns, even if those guns are in the hands of trigger-happy Americans.

[Phil O'Sophical]

US coronavirus deaths per 100,000 population is about 1,000, in the UK it is about 1,500.

You're out by more than an order of magnitude. The figure for the USA is 1160 per million (not per 100,000),

The UK figure is 1267 per million, calculated as 84,767 in a population of 66.9m. Regionally it is:

Engl 1316 (74085/56.3m)

Wales 1290 (4063/3.15m)

Scot 928 (5102/5.5m)

N.I. 800 (1517/1.9m)

Total 1267 (84767/66.9m)

[Anonymous Coward]

Coronavirus is way more dangerous than guns

It's also way more different.

You can't make comparisons like that.

[Pascal Monett]

Sorry, katrinab, but comparing Coronavirus to a bunch of confederate-loving hostage-taking-planners with Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs strikes me as a bit exaggerated.

How's about you express your figures in the number of people killed in car accidents ? Do you really think that's going to make me scared of cars ?

Nope.

But a bunch of violent, bloodthirsty hillbillies with SWAT-level weaponry ? Yeah, I'd be scared of that.

[katrinab]

Your “confederate-loving hostage-taking-planners” have killed more people due to their anti-mask stance, and will kill more people due to their anti-vaxx stance, than with their Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs. Even if they started WW3, that likely wouldn’t be as fatal as coronavirus.

Deaths from coronavirus in the UK are currently running a bit higher than WW2, and WW2 numbers include crown colonies so likely the population was higher than it is now.

In the US, it is currently about half the death rate of the Civil War, the most deadly war in US history, but that was over 4 years, and the pandemic isn’t finished yet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Civilian deaths in WW2. No where near military deaths. Not to detract from your comment but numbers and statistics can always be manipulated depending on what you want to say.

[katrinab]

382,600 military deaths + 67,100 civilian deaths over about 6 years; vs around 100,000 deaths over about 10 months.

[MiguelC]

Vs. population in each era?

If you replace absolute numbers for percentages you get a totally different view.

lies, damned lies and statistics all the way

[katrinab]

As I said above the British numbers include the Crown colonies, so the population was actually bigger than it is now.

[Doctor Syntax]

I suppose Trump will claim Biden was less popular because there were fewer people in the crowd and his was the biggest ever.

[Anonymous Coward]

> I suppose Trump will claim Biden was less popular because there were fewer people in the crowd and his was the biggest ever.

Trump crowd comparatives: big, bigglier, bigotist

[Anonymous Coward]

...fewer people in the crowd and his was the biggest ever

A bit of Photoshopping and some old photos will fix that, though.

It worked in 2016.

[Anonymous Coward]

Watching from the outside

The issue is that lawlessness and disorder creates more lawlessness and disorder and then power vacuums and then further far larger numbers of deaths due to lack of leadership, planning and organisation (e.g. collapsing economies, food shortages, mishandling of pandemics). There are also outside actors who would then use that to stir more trouble and cause more gullible people to add to the chaos.

Civilisation is the opposite of chaos. Obviously a little chaos is required to move things forward but there are points where the whole lot comes crashing down.

Plenty of people with little critical thinking capabilities are unable to see what leads to what. By the time they may realise it, it's too late

[Allan George Dyer]

Golf, not Insurrection

So these armed hate-groups are going to turn up to the inauguration cold and grumpy because they slept in the back of their pickup trucks?

How about offering them alternative accommodation somewhere warm, like Florida? Hey, there's an idea, spread a rumour that Donald likes them so much he wants them to hang out by his pool and play a round of golf. The course is empty, now the PGA has dumped him.