Thread by @AJKayWriter

I’m on an @AmericanAir flight as I type & the crew has spent 90% of the time on the intercom delivering repeated warnings about letting masks slip, including a stern rebuke that two reminders will result in authorities meeting you at the gate & inclusion on a no-fly list…

What I don’t get is that all but the small, fearful minority know that masks are a mere performance whose only utility is *placating the feelings* of an emotionally dysregulated subset of the population…

which includes people with strong, self-righteous political/tribal allegiances, people who overestimate the actual risk from Covid, and people who are inclined - for whatever reason - to be society’s self-appointed hall monitors…

But if the point is to assuage feelings, what about the feelings of those forced to cover their faces against their will? Those required to pretend they are sick when they’re not? Those who feel degraded and unseen by such an inhumane and disconnected policy?…

People who understand - viscerally and acutely - exactly what is lost by requiring everyone to participate this kind of dehumanizing, pointless, pseudo-religious ritual in order to exercise the human right to move freely?…

Those are the people who have a legitimate case to make about feelings.

And if you’re going to prioritize one group’s feelings over another, are you sure you’re picking the right one?…

You’re not going to find the answer in RCTs or data. You’ll find it accumulating in the form of disgruntled employees, dissatisfied customers & general human misery.

I hope someone in your org reads this and understands the significance of what you are actively co-signing…

You are buying into COVID- avoidance as the organizing & primary principle of your product & it is not a path to growth or progress, for business or greater humanity.

@MartinKulldorff said that the Enlightenment has ended with our reaction to Covid and I can’t help but agree.

And @americanair - you, and all the other commercial airlines, are not only complicit.

You’re culpable.

ETA: They also encouraged passengers to narc on their neighbors.

They literally said, “If you see a passenger with safety violation, please report it to your nearest flight attendant.”

Will you show this thread to your leadership @AmericanAir?

https://twitter.com/AmericanAir/status/1459245649761906690?s=20

ETA:

I get the rationale but I won’t stop flying.

I *will* keep challenging mask & vaccine mandates.

My travel isn’t frivolous,

I travel to meet in-person (critical distinction), learn from, & collaborate w/ ppl who, like me, are trying to right the ship.

I won’t stop.