Watching a man from another nation insult the president of my country makes me feel unwelcome here, and I guess I am. I thought EEVblog was about electronics, not politics.
Irony overload
Perhaps you could explain that, since it looks like you don't care if people like me leave your forum. Have I pushed my negative views of Australian politicians here? I don't even know who they are, but maybe I have forgotten something I wrote in the past.
We'll happily leave the insulting of your president to you and your countrymen - but this video is about assessing the idea and calling it out for what it is.
In simple engineering terms - it's a bad idea ... and that is all that is being said.
If you then want to take a moral "high ground" and use that to mount an attack on the credibility of Dave, based on your interpretation of it being a personal insult upon your president, then you are missing the point entirely. It also shows that you have no grounds to challenge Dave's conclusions on any engineering principles. (We would welcome anybody offering engineering that supports the idea.)
As such, if you want to wave the Trump banner, then go right ahead. We won't stop you. But understand that the Mexican border solar wall idea is technically questionable and certainly not good economics.....
...... no matter
who suggested it.
Let me suggest that it is possible and preferable to debunk bad ideas without the obvious hostility toward a world leader. The explanation of the ins and outs of solar energy is interesting, but do I really have to be exposed to Dave's rancor toward Trump in order to get it?
Take out Trump's name if you want - but the idea deserves the incredulity that Dave expresses.
It's a stupendously crazy idea - and just because it came from your president, we have to bow down and sing its praises???
I have seen that happen between staff and upper management with teams out of the USA, but that does not happen with Aussies. Here, we call dumb ideas dumb - no matter who it comes from.
People who don't live in America do not understand the wave of anti-Trump hysteria we are going through. Conservatives and people who simply look like they might have voted for Trump are being beaten in public places. Their property is being vandalized. Entertainers joke about murdering the president; look up Johnny Depp and Kathy Griffin. We just had a nutcase try to kill a group of conservative congressmen with a rifle at a baseball field, and he succeeded in blowing one congressman's pelvis apart. It would be nice to be able to escape the rage on forums unrelated to politics.
We get to see what happens on the news ... and I know that is not like living it by any stretch of the imagination.
However, the point still remains ... this is NOT an attack on Trump. It's an attack on the dumb idea - which he just happened to utter.
This is a big differentiation. However, I do accept that there is a LOT of tension surrounding the Trump administration and this sort of differentiation gets lost in the frenzy.
It is important for you to understand - that this differentiation is VERY MUCH necessary for an objective discussion... as difficult as it may well be.
Edit: Broke up second quote into two parts.