I read that story on a mainstream media site a few minutes ago too. Some people just gotta hate -scary.
Maybe theyâd dare refund guests because a Pandemic prevents travel? Oh, yeah, we covered that host uproar last year. *
That was your second mistake.
Iâd like to think that it is who they will NOT do business with that is their focus; the likes of racists (oh thatâs already part of their platform) which of late seems to be falling into a specific political position / party.
As pointed out by some others already, those were supposed to be peaceful protests calling out racial inequality by the police. * That is very different than the intelligence regarding the plans for what white supremacists and Trump supporters are planning for this weekend and the inauguration. There are some reports that January 6th was just a trial run.
I believe that a corporation taking a preventative stand for the safety of its hosts, guests, and shareholders is to be commended.
If you have no issue with it, why bring it up? It only conflicts with your own âmantraâ of calling out inconsistencies.
You do have other options for platforms, if you donât like supporting his (and the companyâs) political choices. Look closely because youâll find that AirBNB is not the only corporation making political choices.
Another mistake
You now know that this is not affiliated with AirBNB. While AirBNB may look it over to gage what is being said about them, that is not the same as âmonitoringâ or having employees moderating. you might be confusing this with AirBNBâs Community Center.
The moderators on THIS forum are all volunteers who do their best to allow a respectful open dialogue.
*Greg, Welcome to the forum. You have demonstrated that 1 hr of read time is not enough to be well informed. I suggest you spend a little more time on the forum looking over topics that have been covered including BLM, Pandemic, and Duvets vs Blankets, before coming across as aggressive and defensive as you have on your inaugural forum entry
PS. â your inaugural forum entry â You see what I did there? 
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Trump was pushing 1/6 will be wild for several weeks before the event. The protesters were largely not within driving distance.
The protests over the past year about BLM were not advertised weeks in advance (usually a few days) and pulled mostly local crowds. Canât compare. Canât be handled the same.
I fully support right to assemble peacefully. Looting & violence changes everything. I canât support that
Law enforcement was ramped up. The BLM protestors were tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and more.
The situations are not comparable.
Airbnb canât block reservations if the events are âshort noticeâ & donât require local reservations.
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Russia has gotten what it wantedâŚI think. We have known for years, they were involved and had social media influencers on all sides and were âstirring the potâ. We as a nation managed to run right down the rabbit hole.
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Portland protesters were mostly (not all) local. Shuttering rentals would have had very little impact.
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For those who are looking for an alternative platform (not to be confused with âalternative factsâ) not cancelling reservations in DC, yet.
I say âyetâ because there is now some social media pressure being put on them to cancel.
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@Francis - Greg, you joined here just a few hours ago and already youâve made ten posts so it seems that youâre really keen on joining our little community here.
So why not tell us more about yourself? Where do you host? For how long have you been in the hospitality business? Are you in DC?
As you know, itâs only polite when you join an online community to let us know about yourself. (It used to be called ânetiquetteâ 25 or so years ago).
For those of you who canât get beyond the paywall; some major excerpts that summarize the article:
The false comparison between last summerâs protests and what happened at the Capitol
By Philip Bump
January 15 at 12:06 PM MST
Defenders of the president in Congress and in conservative media have suggested that what occurred at the Capitol was nothing worse, really, than the protests that occurred last summer after a Black man, George Floyd, died after a police officer in Minneapolis put his knee on Floydâs neck for an extended time. Itâs a false comparison and, often, a willfully dishonest one.
There are similarities, of course⌠But any attempt to draw parallels between that support and what occurred at the protests collapses quickly when considering the broader context of what occurred in Washington last week.
1. The intent of the Jan. 6 protest was far more nefarious.
2. The Capitol riots stemmed from a lie.
3. The encouragement of political leaders was not the same.
4. Hundreds of peaceful protests happened last summer. One violent protest happened last week.
5. Whataboutism isnât an excuse.
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The Kochs and Mercers that encouraged these folks by funding astroturf groups like Tea Party, then targeted propaganda with Cambridge Analytics, then Parler⌠and funded House and Senate Republicans to do their bidding⌠they have all found that itâs hard to ride a tiger, especially when you keep provoking it.
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Paraphrased from a Twitter post
âIâm still trying to understand why the same people who are refusing a Covid19 vaccination because they believe Bill Gates will inject them with a monitoring microchip, left the location function active on their cell phones as they ransacked the capital.â
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So why donât you post them? Are you afraid that your sources arenât really good? Will we mock them as well? Yes we probably will.
Iâll say this as nicely as I can. Many of us on the other side are furious. We are not only tired of fact checking a non stop stream of lies coming from the highest levels of government we are heartbroken over relationships fractured by one partyâs naked obsession with power. I am outraged that domestic terrorism and insurrectionism is still being whitewashed in polite company like this forum and the terrorist sympathizers insist that their viewpoints are of equal value to those of Americans who actually love this country. Trumpism is a white supremacist Christian nationalist right wing extremist threat to the American way of life. Wed Jan 6th was a terror attack that luckily largely failed.
The fact that a chunk of corporate America, a few Republicans, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all the living past Secretaries of Defense, all the living past Presidents, are speaking out publicly now is reassuring.
Talk of bringing the country together now without accountability for the crimes of the Trump administration and family is disingenuous at best, criminal at worst. As long as 40% of the nation continues to believe lies and defend the indefensible the longer the reconciliation will take.
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No amount of âprayersâ will heal thisâun @francis
Again, happy to be in my sleepy we corner of Spain.
Good luck folksâŚ
JF
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Yes. In todayâs world there are always âalternative factsâ (AKA lies, fiction, spin) and you can watch Fox News, NewsMax, Qanon, and find as much to defend whatever point of view you want, and while that might make you feel better, it doesnât make it true.
The only indisputable things theses days are white sheets are the best choice for an AirBNB listing, and an electric kettle is far superior to a cooktop version.
Something that is being left out of many of these discussions of who falls for this stuff is brain science. Some people just canât process facts rationally. Mental illness is clearly playing a role. Brainwashing isnât a new phenomena either. People have emotional needs that are met by a sense of belonging to a cause. She is getting a lot of positive reinforcement of her meme posting.
Iâm increasingly convinced that only the complete and utter defeat of Trump is going to make headway into ending this nonesense. Even now they keep pushing the timing of their magical takeover into the future. Trump is going to launch a new assault from FL and that silliness. If he dies the stories of how he was murdered are going to be insufferable.
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I read yesterday that since Trumpâs and other conspiracy mongersâ Twitter and other social media accounts have been closed, there is a 73% reduction in lies being shared online.
And re the brain dysfunction, there have been scientific studies showing that people who fall for these conspiracy theories, religious fanatics, etc., have lesions on the part of the brain that sorts and filters information.
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I donât think brain lesions are required, unfortunately.
The author of the posted QAnon article, NYT tech reporter Kevin Roose, boils it down brilliantly in one phrase: âPeople optimizing their personalities for algorithmic reach.â
Having lots of folks searching for distraction or attention or meaning or self-actualization within the confines of a pandemic surely doesnât help.
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There isnât one size fits all explanation. Some are uneducated, some have mental illness, some are wired differently in cognitive processing, some are just straight up power seekers. That can manifest in seeking office or wanting to impose your Christian nationalist, white supremacist apocalypic world view on everyone in the US via the political system.
My other theory is that we are a beta version experimental population gone awry in some alienâs doctoral thesis project.
âSorry, Splork, as your thesis sponsor I think weâre going to have to pull the plug on this one. Your thesis that the experimental population would evolve out of their narrow tribalism before self-destructing just isnât panning out. Itâs probably more ethical to shut down the simulated environment now before more suffering occurs. Maybe do something with galactic fruit flies instead?â
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And what would those be? I can assure you that reiterating conspiracy theories with no basis in fact wonât lead to that outcome. Nor will your prayers.
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Trolling the internet posing as someone he isnât, pretending to be seeking information. Itâs a standard gaslighting strategy of the radical right. Sprinkled with a little false piety on top.
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