I see both sides and legitimate arguments.
In the USA, there is a road use interaction, and a culture of fear not experienced in many other cycling-centric world cities.
I see how helmets skew cycling's image but I think it's more of a symptom than a cause.
My feeling is that infrastructure change will be the biggest factor in bringing the USA out of the dark ages.
One only need to visit A&S to see how rampant fear mongering is. Sometimes cycling is it's own worst enemy.