Bikers descend on Sturgis rally with few signs of pandemic

No, I just find anyone criticizing this gathering to be a tad hypocritical since we just had "experts" telling us that nationwide BLM gatherings did not spread anything.

 

So, any time you take a single stance on a topic, a group of people on this forum will assume you are the other "team." They will high-five you in another thread where you take a point of view that most closely resembles their own.

I've been around almost four years, and I still get accused of being on both teams, almost on a daily basis. Welcome to the forum. Reasonable minds are here.

 

I'm still struggling to understand how you can think someone chastising a group of people for hanging out in large groups would defend people who hang out in large groups. Months later, and you still seem to think that speaking out against large rallies equates to supporting large rallies.

I just scratch my head and say, "huh?" You make this argument every day, numerous times a day.

People who are against large group gatherings, are AGAINST large group gatherings.

Why do you think against & support are synonyms?

 

Maybe it has something to do with having read several threads around here where the "experts" assured us nothing spread at NATIONWIDE large gatherings.

 

Okay, it's fair to accuse them of being in favor of large gatherings.

People who are against them, though, tend to be against them.

 

I wasn't one of those so no hypocrisy from me. When people directly asked me (at the time of Trump's Tulsa rally), what I said is that I thought that BOTH the large protesting crowds AND the Tulsa rally were imprudent, in view of the pandemic. And now, this bike gathering is imprudent too. You won't catch me with inconsistent positions, sorry. I'm not infallible, I make mistakes, and when I do I say I stand corrected, but being inconsistent or hypocritical are not among my shortcomings.

 

Then I was mistaken to say you were, my apologies.
Just that I have seen so much of it here, I should argue it with them, not you. Covid is now part of the landscape, we cant cancel everything forever.

 

Wow. I must have done something really nasty to you. You throw those accusations at me several times a week. I've clarified my positions numerous times. The accusations from you still fly my way on the regular.

If you tell me what harm you feel I've caused you, I'll apologize.

 

Thanks. Apologies accepted. It's always refreshing to see someone who acknowledges a mistake (I do, too; just recently did in another thread).

Sure, it's part of the landscape, but especially because I'm still hopeful for a vaccine, I do think that being prudent for a few more months is wise, and now that we're seeing a rather serious outbreak, actually much more serious than before the lockdown, it is highly imprudent to gather in one place 250,000 people coming from all over, being there for 10 days mingling, going to bars and restaurants, most of them maskless, and then go back to their communities. If we need a designed strategy to increase the contagion, there isn't much that would fit the bill more perfectly than this. It's similar to Mardi Gras (actually Mardi Gras has even bigger crowds). At the time, the first signs of trouble were coming from China and Europe. One full month before Mardi Gras, cities were shutting down in China and Italy. I remember saying in another forum (I wasn't a member here, yet), "gee, maybe the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Lousiana should postpone the Mardi Gras celebrations. It doesn't seem very prudent to bring to their city millions of people including people from abroad." Well, they didn't, of course, and Mardi Gras went on. Unsurprisingly given the virus' incubation period, about two weeks after Mardi Gras, New Orleans started to get the first cases of COVID-19.

I mean, this is not rocket science. This is a highly infectious virus, airborne, that spreads from person to person, especially in confined spaces, preferably though means of droplets and aerosol emitted when coughing, sneezing, or just talking. Gather a bunch of people talking closely to each other in a confined space, for hours, unprotected by any PPE, and yes, transmission will occur, duh. Gather 250,000 together, and a LOT of transmission will occur.

We shouldn't cancel everything (and we aren't), but 250,000 people together is not something we need, right now.

 

Proof positive that its not only ANTIFA and BLM out committing acts of mass terrorism.

 

What "accusation"? Be specific or I wont know what that is.

 

Every time I come out against gatherings, you accuse me of hypocrisy. You seem to think I support the rioters. I've never said a single word in support of large gatherings. Please stop it. I have no team. Both teams do bad things. I don't decide good/bad based on teams.

 

Sturgis rally cams.

https://rallysturgis.com/webcams

 

Depends on the bikers. Now that was difficult, wasn't it?

 

I watched a little, like the sidewalk cam. Almost NOBODY wearing masks...
On the other hand, crowds are thinner than I thought. Maybe many bikers got afraid of attending, after all... because as far as the naked eye goes, this doesn't look like a 7,000-inhabitant town that just got a surplus of 250,000 visitors. Anyway, who knows, maybe they're indoors in bars, restaurants, and hotels.

 

Sure, but statistically speaking, I'd speculate that probably there are more bikers who are right wingers than left wingers, just on grounds of observing their display of the American flag. Usually, it's the more right wing people who display the American flag everywhere including their vehicles. Nothing wrong with that; I love the American flag and have one in my porch, but I'm just saying, statistically speaking you are more likely to see a bumper sticker with an American flag in a car of a right winger, while the left wingers have some sort of "save the planet" bumper sticker.

 

Or the "coexist" one made up of multiple religious symbols. I LOL at that one given the anti Christian hostility displayed by more than a few on the left.

 

There are a lot of indoor venues. ZZ Top canceled, so they got a ZZ Top cover band, instead. Very crowded. Restaurants and bars don't seem to be limiting the crowds, either. These pictures give a view of how things are going. The Trump body paint is unfortunate, and not why I am posting this . I also wonder why they felt the need to post a picture of a woman smoking a cigarette. The crowd pics show up around picture 16.

https://www.autoblog.com/photos/2020-sturgis-motorcycle-rally/#slide-2255764

 

Terrible.
Harleys everywhere, masks nowhere.
Given that so many are overweight/obese which is a risk factor for severe COVID-19, we'll see some biker deaths in 5 weeks.

 

True, LOL

 

Is it any worse than the ongoing riots/protests in numerous cities, where those present are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with one another, and failing to observe basic social distancing guidelines and masking requirements?

 

I guess you're replying without reading the whole thread (no problem, I'm guilty of the same, often) because as we've said above, BOTH are boneheaded moves. I'm not posting this out of some sort of political agenda. I'm just saying it's imprudent to gather 250,000 from all over in one little town, going to indoors concerts, bars, and restaurants, all talking to each other and mingling in close proximity for 10 days, then all going back to their communities, in the middle of a freaking pandemic of a very contagious airborne viral disease. It's imprudent to have mass riots/protests too.

 

Butbutwhatabout is the most common defense around here for partisans.

 

You really need to understand that not everyone on this forum is a hypocritical partisan. Pay attention to what people say before calling them a hypocrite.

 

Thanks to people being lazy sloppy and selfish