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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAn Army of MAGA Karens and Kevins Is Being Shitty for Sport
TRUMPY TANTRUMS EVERYWHEREhttps://www.thedailybeast.com/an-army-of-maga-karens-and-kevins-is-being-shitty-for-sport?ref=home
America has done it again.
Rather than being discouraged by the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have dug in, held on, gritted our teeth, and against all the odds, somehow emerged from a year of unfathomable hardship into our bold new normal, where we somehow act like even bigger dickheads than we were before this all happened. This week I, like millions of people, watched a video of an unruly woman at an airport being told that she was not allowed to fly on that particular airline after refusing to wear a mask and calling one of the check-in agents a bitch. In the video, the woman pleads with a higher-ranking airline employee, who calmly explains that rude behavior isnt tolerated on their airline, and if shes looking for another travel option, he suggests Spirit Air. Burn. Although we didnt see the behavior that led to the womans expulsion, it was a solid entry into the public Karen freakout video genre, because it featured a person who was clearly used to getting their way no matter how they acted running head on into a reality where they do suffer consequences as a result of their actions. The woman pleads, and is denied. She lies, expecting her word to be believed over that of the other party. Shes denied again. She does not get what she wants. She walks away, defeated. Its like mainlining schadenfreude.
But for every Karen or Kevin who gets their just desserts, there are untold numbers of abusive customers, passengers, patrons, and shoppers who do get away with it, and the problem seems to be getting worse. Restaurant workers who returned to understaffed restaurants report that customer shitheadery is at an all-time high, from New York City to South Carolina to California to Massachusetts, where last week a restaurant closed down for a day of kindness after entitled customers abused employees to tears. Airline passengers throwing tantrums about wearing masks have led to grounded flights and emergency landings. (The uptick in ugly airline travel experiences inspired my husband and I to call an audible and drive from Los Angeles to a family reunion near Duluth, Minnesota rather than brave LAX. It took us three days. No regrets.) Predictions that the summer of 2021 would be both horny and chill have turned out to be sorely mistaken. Instead, all across the country, some Americans decided to get their pandemic ya-yas out by abusing the wait staff, flight attendants, bartenders, receptionists, baristas, nail technicians, cashiers any worker whose job is to deal with customers, reset expectations, enforce rules.
In retrospect, we should have seen Summer 2021: Revenge of the Karen coming, as our former president has spent years modelling this exact behavior. Donald Trumps presidency damaged our standing in the global community, our public health, our government, and our democracy, but hes also done irreparable harm to the American personality, attracting people who were already kind of shitheads in the first place and encouraging them to give into their worst impulses and then cry and break things when they dont get their way. Trump might not be in any of the public freakout Karen videos that matriculate from social media to national news, but hes felt in each one, smiling down on the insufferable asshole throwing a fit. When I watch a video where a man is dragged off an airplane after refusing to wear a mask, I see a COVID-riddled President Trump ripping off his mask as he gasps for air on the steps of the White House after being released from Walter Reed. When I watch a diner screaming anti-Asian racial slurs at restaurant staff, I hear President Trump telling CBS News Weija Jiang to ask China about COVID-19. When a patron threatens to call ICE on a Texas restaurant because of its mask mandate, I hear Trump calling Mexican immigrants rapists. The woman from the airline counter denying over and over again that she called the employee a bitch is Trump tweeting NO COLLUSION! at all hours of the day, with no context.
When Donald Trump refused to concede the election after a clear Biden victory, an internet user whose identity has been lost in the whitewater rapids of memes we call culture photoshopped a stereotypical Karen hairstyle onto then-President Trump, alongside the words I would like to speak to the polls manager. It got made into tee shirts. The Jan. 6 Trump riot that claimed the lives of five people in the U.S. Capitol building was the ultimate Karen tantrum, a Transformers Combiner of Karens, the worlds most powerful Karen calling his army of Karens together, all of them demanding to speak to the manager and then, when their demands were not placated, trying to destroy reality rather than live in it. One would think that embarrassing behavior that leads to public shaming on a massive scale would be a deterrent, but Trump demonstrated to this country that being an insufferable prick is a great way to get ones way. Once a persons sense of entitlement grows larger than their ability to feel empathy, they also inoculate themselves against shame. And shameless jerks have almost unlimited capacity to ruin everybody elses day. If youre a jerk for long enough and you dont care that everybody youre dealing with thinks youre a jerk, eventually the other party will get tired of dealing with you and give up. And you win.
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MustLoveBeagles
(11,563 posts)PSPS
(13,516 posts)SergeStorms
(18,903 posts)MF45 wouldn't piss on any one of them if they were on fire. They're just marks for the greatest grifter of all time.
He takes their money at every turn, knowing these low-life rubes would follow him anywhere. He uses them, abuses them, then just turns and walks away, leaving their bank accounts drained. "So long, suckers"!
Celerity
(42,666 posts)SergeStorms
(18,903 posts)biggest supporters. MF45 is a born conman.
All MF45 has to do is be himself; a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, white supremacist, fascist, and his supporters will follow him anywhere, because that's who they are too.
Murphyb849
(569 posts)captain queeg
(10,036 posts)Based on reactions I would assume so, though Ive never had the pleasure myself. I was looking for a flight recently and they had the best price, but I hesitated due to this incident.
Sedona
(3,769 posts)I flew them once. Never again.
I had the window seat, by choice, and a very stinky 40ish guy in the middle seat was drunk when he staggered on the plane. Spirit FA continued to serve him several Jack & Cokes as he pawed me (middle aged chubby lady) and eventually passed out and kept leaning/falling into my space.
He got up once to stagger the john and I quietly complained to FA who simply shrugged and continued the stream of Jack & Cokes until he passed out.
This went on for a six hour trip from South Florida to my home in LA after my father's funeral. Five years later I still clearly remember his stench. Longest flight of my life!
I could have easily Karened out on the guy, the airline, the flight attendant Jack Daniel's, but it made more sense to just quietly push Mr Jack and coke off me and onto the the poor dude in the isle seat.
Do not fly Spirit under any circumstances.
Celerity
(42,666 posts)https://nypost.com/2020/10/23/man-wearing-burger-king-crown-yells-n-word-on-jetblue-flight/
A man in a paper Burger King crown hurled racist slurs at a fellow passenger on a New York-bound JetBlue flight, after accusing her of taking his seat and kneeing him in the stomach, videos show.The flight was on the ground in Kingston, Jamaica, preparing to leave for New Yorks JFK Airport. The man who has long blond locks and appears to be white is seen raging at flight attendants with his mask below his chin, furiously repeating the assault allegation. In one clip, a woman filming tells him she kneed him because you deserve it eliciting a passionate but ill-conceived defense from her alleged victim.
Excuse me, Im part-West African, he screams.
I can say n-r anytime I want!
The irate man continues to scream profanities as the plane of mostly black passengers goes into a frenzy.
Kick that n-r bh off the plane! he yells, with a smirk.
She kneed me in the stomach!
I dont care what she did. Youre being disrespectful. Shut the fk up for just two seconds, a fed-up flight attendant replies.
The in-flight fiasco then escalates as the man stands up and dumps water on the flight attendant while yelling, I want a fking lawsuit right now, motherfker! Video of the aftermath of the mans eruption shows multiple people running up the aisle to pounce on him, before being held back by flight crew and fellow fliers. The man continues to yell profanities including the N-word as he and the other passengers return to their seats.
Kingston police later removed the man from the flight in handcuffs, TMZ reported. JetBlue confirmed the incident, which occurred Tuesday on a plane bound for New Yorks JFK Airport, the carrier said. The man has been banned from riding with the airline. We have zero tolerance for racism or harassment, and after reviewing this customers abhorrent racist behavior, we have determined he is no longer welcome to fly JetBlue, said spokesman Derek Dombrowski.
SergeStorms
(18,903 posts)The people on that flight, flight attendants included, gave that psychotic, racist moron many more chances than he deserved.
As an aside, the handcuffed person they took off the aircraft didn't look like the longhaired psycho doing all the screaming?
Celerity
(42,666 posts)Celerity
(42,666 posts)here is another video of him getting kicked off another flight
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Rtg94yoMKNL8/
his YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxFRGYe-3rSXpoGOkiNvMAQ/videos
SergeStorms
(18,903 posts)First, he should stop smoking pot. People with psychological problems shouldn't be doing that, but like most people with psychological problems, he probably doesn't think he has psychological problems.
Celerity
(42,666 posts)monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)2naSalit
(86,061 posts)YoshidaYui
(41,764 posts)Trump is an. asshole. His followers are encouraged to be. Assholes too.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)This is nothing new to the folks who work in the sector. I saw a slow but steady increase in abuse over my time and suspect that while TFG had something to do with a increase what you are seeing is an increase in reporting courtesy of technology such as cell phones.
Customers are often pleasant or just trying to get in and get out, but the abusive behavior has always been there by those who consider themselves better than those who are working to serve them. I used to call it kick the dog syndrome in which the particular customer was pissed off about something in their lives and came into the store for whatever reason and took out their frustrations on the first employee available. Happened a lot.
NJCher
(35,432 posts)Life is so much less stressful by being civil. It can even be fun if you have some respect and empathy.
I know what Sherman is saying is true because I have had clients who were retail operations. At one of them, they had employee-led meetings where people could let off steam about some of the more unbearable people they had to endure. The stories I heard.
Someone would inevitably start the chant retail is hell, retail is hell. Then they would all go back to the frontlines to put up with more inconsiderate behavior.
I totally believe trump is responsible for a lot of the increase in this horrible behavior, though. We just didnt need him exacerbating an already bad situation.
Hekate
(90,202 posts)We cannot, must not, let them win.