Tall Tales
Lifted from the comments, a spot of anthropology. In which, a progressive woman seeks irritation, some cause for concern – and, with effort, finds it:
What’s amusing about these displays of woke piety is, I think, the eerie uniformity, the contrivance, the same weird psychology.
Not only is Ms Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones, ostentatiously vexed by an unremarkable expression of politeness and goodwill – such that she feels a need to alert her 134,000 likeminded followers to the imminent Christian Nationalist uprising – but we’re also expected to believe that her account of events is entirely true. That her peculiar disapproval was shared, audibly, by many other passengers, which, frankly, seems unlikely.
Oh, and she’s also revealed in the subsequent thread to be something of a hypocrite, and a repeated user of the same, supposedly offensive term. The latest instance being a mere three days earlier. I’m sure you’re all shocked. Do take a moment to steady yourselves.
As Clam adds in the comments,
It does suggest being accustomed to getting away with it. An expectation of mutual dishonesty, in which no-one pulls at the obvious threads, lest the favour be repaid and their own pronouncements receive an unwelcome scrutiny.
I suppose we could see the dubious story above – in which an innocuous expression of politeness is proof of “creeping Christian nationalism” – as a new spin on the woke eight-year-old phenomenon from 2016, in which countless progressives, including MSNBC “analysts” and editors of leftist magazines – and including Ms Jeffery herself – started tweeting, competitively, about their small children, all aged eight, supposedly saying Oddly Precocious And Terribly Progressive Things:
As I said at the time,
The phenomenon was seemingly contagious and quite bizarre, a collective fit of transparent fabrication, and soon became a mocking meme. But I think we’re seeing much the same psychology. The same telling of tall tales in order to assert status and to fuel some progressive psychodrama.
For grown adults, our supposed moral betters, this is… odd behaviour.
It’s only odd for grown adults who aren’t woke progressives. For woke progressives it’s totally normal behaviour.
It would seem to be very common, yes.
And academia is soaked in this culture of dishonesty, from lie-filled “scholarly” papers which cite equally fraudulent papers, to professors and administrators who brand any debunking as “uncollegial” behavior and any expression of dissent as (of course) racism, sexism, classism, transphobia, islamophobia, etc.
I knew of some staunch athiests who would make these claims about their son.
When he was 3 or 4, in response to a woman saying ‘oh my god’ he spontaneously retorted, ‘oh my flying spaghetti monster!!’
I was over these sorts of stories, so naturally I took it very seriously. ‘Wow he was able to link two very abstract concepts together and apply it successfully out of context. That demonstrates very advanced verbal and logical reasoning skills for his age. Have you had him tested? Surely he might benefit from some form of extension program…’ I stopped short of suggesting a Nasa internship. I didn’t want to be obviously sarcastic.
Heh. Well, quite. Thing is, there’s no shortage of people actually saying dumb or objectionable things, so the urge to fabricate grievances, to balance so much umbrage and righteous chest-puffing on the merest mote, is, again, a little odd.
For grown adults.
I mean, when you’re very publicly complaining about a flight attendant using the word blessed, as if this one word of goodwill signalled some impending theocracy – of, presumably, white supremacists and assorted monsters – and when you’re using your own eight-year-old child as some political ventriloquist’s doll – then we’re in the land of make-believe.
And quite possibly, anti-psychotic medication.
Or better a Maoist struggle session. It is, after all, Mother Jones.
Based on her track record I bet none of it happened.
Setting aside the air of fabrication, Ms Jeffery seems oblivious to how petty, presumptuous and mean-spirited she sounds. As if complaining about a commonplace word of kindness, a courtesy, and construing it as offensive and vaguely sinister, were what righteous, well-adjusted people do. As if it were something one should boast about, publicly, while waiting for applause.
She goes on to complain about disrespect – as if she had been violated by someone wishing her well – and depicts herself as being oppressed by some “dominant culture.” In which flight attendants say nice things to passengers.