There’s a bit more than Senator Cruz (R-TX) just making a mistake here:<\/p>\n
\nThis weekend, over 2,000 reported Southwest Airlines cancellations brought untold thousands of passengers to their knees. The airline has the boring reason: \u201cweather.\u201d Conservatives have a more thrilling one: a working-class rebellion against President\u00a0Joe Biden\u2019s vaccination tyranny. So victory against Democrats is weary masses forced to stand in line\u00a0for hours<\/a>\u00a0at dawn,\u00a0sleep on the floor<\/a>, and\u00a0make TikToks<\/a>, while baggage\u00a0piles up<\/a>\u00a0around the conveyor belt.<\/p>\n
Among them, Sen.\u00a0Ted Cruz is spreading an\u00a0unverified rumor<\/a>\u00a0that pilots staged a massive \u201csickout\u201d to protest \u201cBiden\u2019s illegal vaccine mandate.\u201d Newsweek\u2019s deputy opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon\u00a0asked<\/a>: \u201cWere the canceled flights the result of a \u2018sick out\u2019 on the part of pilots refusing to get vaccinated?\u201d and continued, baselessly, to conclude that this represents a \u201cpowerful form of collective action\u201d by working-class vaccine-refusers. [Whitney Kimball,<\/em> Gizmodo<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And he’s refuted:<\/p>\n
\nSouthwest Airlines pilots have denied that theory, which seems spun from the fact Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), a bargaining unit representing over 9,000 pilots, filed a request last Friday asking that a Dallas federal court block the airline from enforcing vaccine mandates.<\/p>\n
If Cruz read\u00a0the motion<\/a>, he\u2019d\u00a0likely hate<\/a>\u00a0their rationale; SWAPA\u2019s staking out a labor rights stance, arguing that Southwest illegally neglected to bargain with the union over the policy change.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The question is whether this is an unforced error on Cruz’s part, or a deliberate maneuver? I think it’s the latter.<\/p>\n
Decades ago, I was invited to attend the test screening of four pilots of situation comedies, or at least so they were represented; they were probably actually to test commercials, judging from the follow up calls. The interesting part was when they got everyone together – maybe a couple of hundred of us – and asked for a show of hands from people who thought the shows were good, which, incidentally or not, were NOT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
First a few hands went up, then you could see people glancing at their neighbors and then putting their hands up, a wave of glances and hands going up, until maybe 3\/4s of us had our hands up. (Not me nor my companion.)<\/p>\n
I see this as an extension of that phenomenon. Cruz wants folks, many impressionable, to believe there’s a union that has rebelled against vaccine mandates. Cruz knows how this works: first impressions are strong, corrections are weak.<\/p>\n
And often people do not discern patterns of mendacity from folks in positions of prestige, like Senator Cruz.<\/p>\n
So don’t think this is a simple mistake. This, I think, is a deliberate maneuver by Cruz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s a bit more than Senator Cruz (R-TX) just making a mistake here: This weekend, over 2,000 reported Southwest Airlines cancellations brought untold thousands of passengers to their knees. The airline has the boring reason: \u201cweather.\u201d Conservatives have a more thrilling one: a working-class rebellion against President\u00a0Joe Biden\u2019s vaccination tyranny. \u2026 Continue reading