“I would make a proposition to the Republicans: If they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we’ll stop telling the truth about them” — Adlai Stevenson II (1952)
You would have thought that enough prominent MAGAs were lying like professionals to satisfy a base eager to be outraged. But a British gadfly proves that more of a bad thing is never enough. So why not make up stuff about American companies harassing their customers for wearing message Ts?
Milo Yiannopoulos, a member of the British chapter of America’s dead-end gang, glommed onto a post from someone claiming to be an American Airlines (AA) passenger on a flight from Dallas to New York. In the post, the author complained that an AA flight attendant had threatened her free speech. The aggrieved citizen complained that an airline employee had told her she needed to either change or turn inside out a T-shirt saying “I STAND WITH CHARLIE KIRK”
(Note, I say “she” because the image is of a female t-shirt. The words do not specify a gender.)
Milo tweeted images of the passenger’s complaint and the offending T-shirt (front and back) with commentary. To wit:
HAPPENING NOW: A stewardess on @AmericanAir flight 1628 just demanded that this passenger change out of her Charlie Kirk “Freedom” shirt, claiming it is “offensive” to the crew. @SecDuffy
“A stewardess”? How offensively retro. The complaint says “flight attendant.” But Milo, like all conservatives, cleaves to the traditional patrimony.
If what Yiannopoulos tweeted were true, I would be as performatively incensed as he is. But before I join Milo’s crusade against the speech Nazis patrolling America’s skies in the guise of “stewardesses,” I will need evidence that this insult to the First Amendment is a fact. (Note: I know that 1A constrains the government, not private businesses — but I’m using 1A in its vernacular, not legal, sense)
Unfortunately, I cannot ask the victim of this corporate censorship for corroboration because Milo’s image of the complaint is merely white words on a black background. It provides no information as to the source of the news. If there were an author other than Yiannopoulos, their name has been cropped. And Milo does not say where he ran across the outrage.
American Airlines took Milo’s tweet seriously. They replied that the put-upon passenger had not informed the company of the event.
Wearing a Charlie Kirk Freedom t-shirt is not in violation of any of our policies. Currently, we have not received any complaints from any individuals traveling on that flight, but are actively engaged and investigating
Call me a cynic, but it seems unlikely that someone would go to the trouble of posting their complaint without at least tagging American Airlines. I imagine that, had an AA employee told a customer to deep-six a non-violent sentiment, the customer would find the airline offering cash and credit to bury the matter, especially in these fraught times. But perhaps she doesn’t like money.
Isn’t it also likely that a flight attendant would have involved the flight captain? I can’t say for sure. But if any reader is familiar with airline policies, I’d love to know in the comments.
It is so easy to be a conservative social media star — or, as Milo calls himself, a “civil rights icon.” You can say anything you want, cosseted by the knowledge that your audience will go from zero to incensed without pausing to consider evidence or logic.
If Milo had any cojones, he would try being a liberal commentator. As anyone who has expressed an opinion on DK knows, there is always someone ready to point out where a contributor has mistated a fact or offered an unsupported assertion. (Keep it coming. It makes the writers here better thinkers.)
