A Southwest pilot's dumb public-address message is not that big a deal. Grassroots reactionary forces engaged in intimidation at school-board meetings—combined with state governments trying to police speech in classrooms—is.
Monday's new thing to get exercised about was a Southwest pilot reportedly using coded slang to say, "F*** the president," on a plane's PA system. (He signed off a message with "Let's go Brandon," which has lately become a stand-in for, "F*** Joe Biden.") There is one way in which concerns around this event, into which Southwest has launched an internal investigation, make some sense: commercial flights have become a bizarro battleground in the culture war, where people—almost always passengers—have reimagined a transportation experience designed to bring them from Point A to Point B as some sort of political Ragnarok. They choose a moment when they are cooped up with hundreds of others in a thin metal tube to express their political allegiance, often through antisocial behavior that sometimes generates physical altercations. Whether these antisocial tendencies developed during the pandemic or people have just begun to truly let their freak flags fly remains to be seen. Say a fond farewell to your house slippers. Stock up on sweaters, flannels, even snow bibs (!) during the 24-hour sale. Because skincare doesn't need to be complicated. It just needs to work. Get 50% off your trial now! You'll knock it out of the park with these ideas—a top candidate for all-time best partner of the century. Parenting felt like something other people did, until I met a new version of me. The artist cherished their youth and beauty and used it to make art that was ahead of the game, but the consequences were real and, occasionally, deadly. |
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