Hate on a Plane

Here’s an article about the rise in hate crimes on airplanes, and I’m not sure if we’re supposed to be getting mad at the racists or the airlines. Now that we’re down to 31 inches of leg room, it’s all but impossible to physically assault the person next to me when getting out of my seat.

Last year there were 350 reported cases of “inappropriate touching”. No surprise there. Ever see two passengers try to move past each other in the aisle? It’s like a Nelly rap video, except gross.

Last year I was on a United flight, and two flight attendants were discussing their new policy for booting uncooperative passengers in the wake of the David Dao incident. Instead of dragging a middle-aged doctor out of his seat and knocking his teeth out, flight attendants were to announce that *all* passengers need to deplane. That way, customers can direct their rage at each other, rather than at the airline for their shitty policy.

It occurs to me that Western Democracy works much the same way: Keep the citizenry permanently divided and popular dissatisfaction safely channeled into meaningless dead-ends. And that’s why this headline specifically calls out “racist passengers” rather than, you know, rude and grumpy passengers who just spent 12 hours packed into a cattle slot.

4 thoughts on “Hate on a Plane

    1. I am sick of this one. I am a big dude (6’2″m 300 lbs), but even when i was simply a muscly dude (say 205 lb’s with a 32″ wast), I still had major problems. I like United the best because they allow guys like me to upgrade (I actually had more problems before when my waste was smaller and my shoulders larger).

      The big deal is big dudes next to each other. Fat women tend to hold the fat in the waste, so it does not pother be, but another fate dud requires that we move shoulders around. A better solution would be to collect should and waste sizes, or at the least intersperse male and female passengers.

      Then there is the solution that Asian airlines never have this BS (Singapore, Thai, …). We should allow them to ravage the American market.

  1. Popular dissatisfaction safely channeled into meaningless dead ends, is the key. Especially if the dissatisfaction perfectly meshes with into one’s confirmation bias. Bonus points if the event people rage at was created out of wholecloth and didn’t actually happen as described. Double bonus points if these things build public opinion to get a new Law on the books.

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