I think there is something to the low IQ thing!
I am in a location that gets infrequent snow, and we happened to get a good bit over the weekend. County offices closed, businesses closed, and schools are now going to be closed for the third day in a row.
Local Facebook and NextDoor groups are blowing up with people outraged at the decision to close schools tomorrow, even though most roads are perfectly fine. I've been driving around since Monday (I do have 4x4).
The outrage goes something like this:
"I can't believe they're closing schools again, the road in front of my house is totally clear! It's ridiculous! This is an outrage!"
Well ok, the roads in front of YOUR house may be clear, but when you get to the hilly and more rural areas of the county--where school buses still have to drive--those roads are very treacherous right now. A school bus drove off a hill and flip just a few years ago when it it hit a large patch of black ice going around a curve. This is not a theoretical issue.
There is just a really large contingent of people who just cannot think in "what ifs" or beyond their immediate "right now" situation. (And to be clear, if they were saying "the schools should have had alternative plans for dangerous school bus routes" I would agree! It's just the idiocy of "me me me, now now now" that is striking.)
I can't judge this particular instance, but people are rightfully mistrustful of he government. You're talking about school closings in a country where there were teachers' groups that said that schools need to remain closed until the police is defunded. Or because of monkeypox.
That's absolutely true. Mistrust of the government is a good thing. Along a parallel line, I don't think the ICE riots in Minnesota are going to cause any lack of confidence in the government among those constituents. They will, no doubt, want MORE government to solve the problem.
The number of people making rational arguments (e.g., our kids need socialization and learning) is minimal. It's mostly blathering about "Well, MY road is fine!"
Of course any time you get into any discussion about school buses, the topic gets dicey fast. Rich kids (read, white kids) get driven to school, poor kids (read black brown PoC) have to take the bus. Racism! I rode the bus in elementary school. 4th and 5th grade were brutal with a coterie of black kids who just ruled the roost. (To be fair, there were plenty of non-black bullies--the school bus was just the place where racial differences seemed to be 100% fair game.) This is a common theme in school buses across the US. Do they commonly use school buses in many parts of Europe?
I wonder WHY they simultaneously hate the government (ICE) but will always vote for more government 🤔