Note: this is about an old (October, 2021) story, so it’s in commentary rather than “news.” We just thought it was fun, along with being a good reminder of how crazy the MSM can be.
2021 was a weird time. The Trump years had been relatively prosperous and, even if the news was chaotic, 2017-early 2020 were a relatively stable environment, both in the realms of what was going on internationally and the domestic business environment. But then Brandon came in with his wrecking ball and things gradually devolved.
Gas prices went up, inflation went up, America’s respect on the international stage went down, the Afghanistan withdrawal was a disaster, the border was overrun with illegals. So all that’s still a problem, though fall of 2021 was when those problems really began in earnest.
And, thanks to demands that they get the jab, for a month or so it looked like air travel could collapse as pilots just stopped showing up to work or otherwise rebelled rather than getting the jab and flying.
Why were they the locus of resistance to the mandate? Who knows. Maybe because they’re generally fit, free-thinking, young(ish) men with a spirit of adventure, at least when compared to their desk jockey peers in corporate America.
In any case, they started fighting back. Some decided to take a long vacation, all at once, as many others did the same. Others flew Gadsden flags out the windows of their planes. Still others said “Let’s Go Brandon” on the flight intercom, which made leftie heads explode.
One such leftie was Colleen Long, a reporter for the AP who tried to storm the cockpit after a pilot said “let’s go Brandon”. What’s more, she outed herself as having done so in a Twitter thread, saying:
TFW you’re trying to go on vacation and then the pilot says the very thing you’re working on over the loud speaker and you have to try to get him comment but then almost get removed from plane.
Also in defense of airline I was asking them to open locked cock pit and probably sounded insane!
The airline did respond: “Southwest Team takes pride in providing a welcoming, comfortable, and respectful environment for the millions of Customers who fly with the airline each year and behavior from any individual that is divisive or offensive is not condoned.”
A portion of the U.S. was already angry well before the Brandon moment. …. But anger has now moved beyond die-hard Trump supporters, said Stanley Renshon, a political scientist and psychoanalyst at the City University of New York.
And as for the real Brandon: He drives for a short-staffed, underfunded team owned by his dad. And while that win — his first career victory — was huge for him, the team has long struggled for sponsorship and existing partners have not been marketing the driver since the slogan.
And Long wasn’t the only journalist to go crazy over the “Let’s Go Brandon” messages. CNN’s Julliette Kayyeem did as well, saying:
If @SouthwestAir doesn’t do anything, every passenger on that flight has standing to file a complaint with the @FAANews and they should do so. Southwest will then be compelled to investigate or defend him. Have fun with that. No messing around in the air. Bright line rule.
Unlike some of you, I’m not saying he should fired. Only that there should be investigation. For all we know he was making fun of it. Either way — bad joke or asshole — it cannot go unaddressed lest it opens up other pilots to harangue passengers.
Of course, such complaints were absurd given how journalists acted during the Trump presidency, as this great tweet exposed:
Seeing @briantylercohen upset by incivility has breathed new life into me pic.twitter.com/YgSMtkoi4q
— Patterico (@Patterico) October 31, 2021
2021 was a weird time. Has 2022 gotten weirder yet?
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