Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief of Mother Jones which is often described as “left-leaning” or “far left,” took to social media to blast a union flight attendant at Alaska Airlines over their landing announcement where the editor complains that passengers were wished a “blessed” night prior to arrival in San Francisco.
Creeping Christian nationalism alert: @AlaskaAir flight attendant just wished us a “blessed” night as we landed in SFO (!) to groans. Other adjectives that would have sufficed: great, awesome, fabulous, amazing, fantastic…
As my rowmate said, “this ain’t Montgomery, sweetie.”
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) September 28, 2024
Jeffery calls it “creeping Christian nationalism” though it’s an individual employee of a business – not government – offering a personal message. And indeed it’s hardly new and therefore creeping!
For over 30 years Alaska Airlines included prayer cards on meal trays, beginning in the late 1970s. They stopped serving meals on trays in coach in 2006, so the cards became a first-class only item (and eventually first class on flights of four hours or longer). They were discontinued from first class meal trays in 2012, with airline leadership explaining at the time that,
Some of you enjoy the cards and associate them with our service. At the same time, we’ve heard from many of you who believe religion is inappropriate on an airplane.
Ironically, the passenger complaining about this flight attendant regularly uses ‘bless you’ and “God bless” herself.
Called out over this, she digs deeper and argues it’s ‘off brand’ for Alaska despite its decades-long history with prayer cards and, for that matter, friendly and caring flight attendants. She says she is being disrespected:
Eh. It’s a matter of respect for the audience before you. Respecting their space and norms and wishes. Dominant cultures always feel they have a right to enforce their norms and intents. And…way off @AlaskaAir’s brand.
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) September 28, 2024
As Thrifty Traveler‘s Kyle Potter put it “Scolding an overworked, underpaid flight attendant for showing a smidge of personality at the end of a long day is a choice, I guess.”
I’d simply offer to Ms. Jeffery, “bless your heart.”
Left *leaning* is an understatement. Mother Jones is about as close to center as Alex Jones (they’re both absolute wastes of space).
It’s fine if someone gets upset by an innocuous statement, but before this becomes a right-wing comment thread complaining about the left, remember this swings both ways. At the end of every year for the past five (ten?) years, the right loses its collective mind when people and companies say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” That’s also an innocuous statement.
LOL, I was reminded of of those “meal prayer cards” on Alaska many years back (when I was living in Portland and traveled a bit), and thought they were quaint, and pretty harmless. As for the FA and her offering of a “blessed night,” once more, my skin would be a little bit too thick these days to be offended. I’ll take any “good-will” that I can, and without too much second-guessing of the motives of the giver. We all make our choices, and I’m well on the “Senior side,” and “choose my battles” accordingly.
Meh. This is hardly newsworthy, but that dead dumb grifting Jew zombie is annoying.
An editor for Mother Jones, that advocates for the abolishment of fossil fuels, is on a flight. Have a blessed day, hypocrite.
Coming from the “side of tolerance acceptance” I see
“Blessed”, whole often paired with religious context, isn’t inherently religious.
Now, “May God give you all a blessed night”, that IS religious and shouldn’t be allowed.
That’s the difference. And while I very much support the freedom of religion, remember that also means “freedom to choose a different or no religion”. So, unless THE CORPORATE / BUSINESS is strongly supporting a specific religion (and employees do that same), then the employees shouldn’t be allowed to use their jobs to promote their own beliefs. Basically, it comes down to only promoting what the business stands for, including when that means nothing at all.
As for the offended, this sort of thing is where you make customer service complaints. Then the company can decide if it’s a violation of policy or if they should simply tell the employees to refrain from that comment because it’s easy to take it as religious. At that point, the one making the complaint can decide, based on repeated negative experiences or how the company treats their complaining, whether or not to continue supporting their business.
Next FA should tell her they hope she has a terrible night and one of her eight cats dies.
This idiot at Mother Jones needs to get a life.
HYPOCRISY IS NOT A LOGICAL FALLACY – although it’s a bad look, there is no detriment to logic or reason in arguing against religious language when you use the same language yourself. There is no detriment to logic or reason in campaigning for the environment when you yourself take a high-pollution form of transportation.
The press needs drama and controversy to remain relevant, otherwise they go out of business.
Haters gotta hate.
Just a note to Mother Jones for future reference. If the Christian population of the United States can overlook and ignore the claptrap spouted every single year, all year long, by the Athiests who are mortally offended that someone else has alternate beliefs, please, in the future, breathe in, breathe out, and move on. Christians do not really care if you are offended.