Stop Publicizing Airplane Rage

 

This is maybe going to sound a bit contradictory, but I believe that if we were to stop publicizing all of these airline rage incidents, a large majority of them would stop. Let me tell you my basis for this opinion.

I lived in Denver, Colorado during the Columbine school shooting. For the first few months, every time the media talked about Columbine (which was every broadcast), they mentioned the perpetrators first and last names. People had to beg them to stop, as teenagers were becoming fascinating with “all of the attention” the two boys were getting. In their youth and immaturity, they were too young to see that the two boys were not alive to enjoy the attention they were getting. Obviously, it didn’t stop all school shootings, but it did slow them down for a while, when teenagers saw that the “copycat” shooters weren’t getting the level of attention they used to.

My youngest older brother committed suicide in 1985. I still recall during the week before the funeral, while staying at our house, my oldest older brother, R, made the comment that he should commit suicide so he could get “all of this attention.” People from church had been bringing food for us and coming over to comfort my parents at the loss of their son.

When I drove city buses for a living in Denver, Colorado, I recall several instances where people would get on the bus and deliberately act up or harass the driver. If a friend or associate tried to stop them, they said that harassing the driver was “what you were supposed to do.” Somewhere along the line they’d heard about someone else doing it, and truly thought that was the way you were supposed to act on public transportation.

Which brings me to the airline rage incidents. They’ve gone on so long now that I believe that this type of behavior on airplanes is becoming “normalized.” It’s also becoming a way for people to get attention, especially after the intense period of isolation we’ve just experienced. Children discover early that getting negative attention from their parents can be better than not receiving any attention at all. The intern
et has opened a whole new world when it comes to giving everyone their “15 minutes of fame.” People are eager to be the next Tik Tok or Facebook star, even if they’re famous for something negative, like being a “Karen” or causing a scene on an airplane.

I can’t help but think that, like city bus passengers, airplane passengers have started to believe that harassing flight attendants, screaming, yelling, and punching other passengers is the way you are “supposed” to act on an airplane. For me, I can’t help but think that stopping all publicity of such incidents would rob these people of the attention they get from perpetrating them, and maybe at least decrease, if not put a halt to them.

This is just my 2c on the matter.