There’s a big difference between being entitled to an opinion and being entitled to act upon that opinion. That important realization presents itself today in the form of a travel column.
You Are Always Entitled To Your Opinion, Even On An Airplane!
An article by Elliott Hester in the Los Angeles Times is titled:
You’re entitled to your opinion about mask-wearing, but not at 30,000 feet.
That headline certainly caught my eye. I thought perhaps that was just a sensationalistic headline, but it’s not. Hester is a flight attendant and a longtime syndicated columnist. He argues that:
“If noncompliant passengers believe the highly transmittable coronavirus is a hoax or that refusal to wear a mask makes some political statement or that their rights are being assailed, they are entitled to their opinions. But not at 30,000 feet. Not in a confined space for hours at a time with hundreds of worried strangers. Not when social distancing is impossible to achieve.”
Words matter. I realize I am one to talk when it comes to proofreading, but someone can still be very much of the opinion that masks are counterproductive and still dutifully comply at 30,000 feet.
He concludes his column by arguing:
“Wear a mask and get over yourself. If the Earth revolved around you and your sentiments, it would spin off its axis. And there would be no place for us to fly.”
And I agree. But that’s not what he argued before. Instead, he argued that you are not entitled to a certain opinion. I don’t like to see such arguments in public discourse.
Look, I’m not going to engage in the “cancel culture” trope of those with a persecution complex on the issue of masks. I’m also not going to argue that the “jury is still out” on masks.
But you are always entitled to your opinion. Always.
Live and Let’s Fly often takes positions. Some are popular. Some, not so much. There are consequences for acting upon and even expressing certain opinions. But I do want you to know that while other travel blogs remove comments, you are quite free to state your mind here. As long as you attack ideas and not people and keep the language clean, I’m not in the business of editing comments.
Worth a post over this? Perhaps not, but I hope that each day is another exercise in sharpening language and seeking the goal of truth. One way we reach that goal is through dialogue.
Well said. As long as people don’t act in a way that endangers other people and don’t yell or otherwise shove their opinion in your face, so what if they believe differently?
This clarity of prose is exactly why I visit your blog everyday. Kudos from a fellow attorney who also found greener pastures elsewhere.
Well sure, this is nothing new, it’s the bedrock on which a free nation is built. We have a constitutional right to have retarded opinions.
I appreciate that your blog does not censor opinions, like many blogs, news outlets, and social media sites do these days. This culture of refusing to debate or even allow contrary opinions is to me the root cause of the increasing division in society. People are increasingly living in their own bubbles, never confronted with contrary viewpoints to challenge their own.
Airlines have the right to set policy, and people are free to either agree to their policies or find another way to get to their destination. It is not a freedom issue. People who refuse to wear masks in confined spaces like airplanes are certainly selfish, but the mask nazis are just as bad. Masks aren’t some invulnerability cloak or panacea. When I walk my dog in my neighborhood, I don’t wear a mask, because I can easily keep 30ft away from anyone else. People wearing a mask in such situations, or even while driving by themselves, are sheeple that have no ability to think critically.
Classic both sides-ism (yet wholly unsurprising).
Sure, the people criticizing those not wearing masks (via words) are just as totally guilty of terribleness as those who aren’t wearing masks (and help to spread the disease that has killed 190K Americans and counting).
What’s next – those criticizing hate speech are just as bad as the White Nationalists out protesting with the tiki torches? “Many fine people on both sides” and all.
SMH.
If you can’t distinguish between the usefulness of wearing a mask in an airplane and wearing a mask while driving solo then I can’t help you. You’re obviously one of those that lack the ability to think critically. What is it with you leftists? Always got to drag race into everything.
Ah yes. The great sheeple argument. You Trumpettes always attempt to sound reasonable but can’t help but sling in a few ad hominems at some point.
What would you call someone who has no ability to think for themselves? oh my great leaders tell me to always wear a mask, so I’ll wear one even while driving solo. Sheeple. It’s not an ad hominem, it’s descriptive. Now if I called you an leftist idiot troll, that would be an ad hominem.
S for brains, the conversation isn’t about wearing a mask solo in a car, it’s about trolls like you saying the anti maskers on planes are no worse than the people criticizing them
You clearly worship the Racist In Chief too…not that hard to connect the dots
Your writing has taken a step upwards, Matthew. Not sure what is different or changed but you have reached a new level lately. Which is why this is my favorite points/flying blog.
My teachers in school taught me the value of an opinion is directly proportional to the research findings and moral /ethical principles supporting it. Otherwise,it’s a personal feeling.
No, not worth a post. Yes, the language could be sharper but part of valuable discourse is also being generous with others’ arguments and addressing their points in good faith without denigrating those arguments with appeals to shiny objects.
It was a slightly — emphasis on slightly — careless writer. Neither the author or the headline writer truly believes that anyone’s over inflated sense of entitlement to his precious opinions, no matter how misguided, mystically disappears over 29,999 feet, nor was that their point. It was a slightly cumbersome way to write an article the point of which is not unclear regarding acting on one’s precious opinions.
Here’s my admittedly precious and obviously over-inflated for effect opinion: While it is theoretically correct that truth can best be found at the end of the path of clarity of thought and writing, often those slavishly adhering to that path lose meaning along the way and when they arrive at the clearing find little but little crumbling monuments to pedanticism.
So this is a COVID/aviation variation on Voltaire on freedom of speech. By all means let them have an opinion on masks, but when they start acting-out on that opinion, with a consequent risk to others, throw ‘em in jail for the duration. It’s long past time to take the gloves off with the nutters calling conspiracy on COVID; many of them are certifiably crazy.
Fully agreed – and as a good example, the mental sickness that is QAnon will soon be in the US freaking Congress with at least one representative. Truly reprehensible.
Mr. Melon, your wife was just showing us her Klimt.
In my experience, airports and airplanes are ‘rights free zones’. ‘Check your rights at the curb’ and welcome inside the airport. This is nothing new—its pretty much the regimen since 9/11. Don’t like it? Don’t fly.
More and more things are becoming this way as we in the USA appear to be going ‘authoritarian banana republic’ these days. Get used to it. Someday we might just look back with fondness upon the days where we had the luxury of worrying about how masks might be ‘infringing on our freedoms’. It’s very possible we might be more concerned about more pressing items like opposition political leaders being given Novichok nerve agent ‘cocktails‘ or being thrown in to the back of unmarked vans and whisked away.
I’m concerned that people are wearing too flimsy a mask. At first, the surgical masks would have been in short supply if 300 million Americans started to wear them. Months out, people should ditch the homemade mask and wear those. By January 1, there will be enough N95 masks for hospitals and doctor’s offices so people should start to wear N95 masks. (If you start earlier, that’s ok because most people won’t).
Semantics.
I wear N95s in public enclosed spaces such as grocery stores while I wear KN95s in high risk outdoor spaces where social distance is frequently violated.