You might be surprised to learn you can be booted off a flight for your attire, hygiene or odor.
To be fair this dudes t-shirt had Trump giving the middle finger. They try to turn this into political gasoline but in reality it could of been any person on the shirt. The problem is the offensive gesturing.
Is that the bar for what should be disallowed on planes? By your logic I should be able to bring an airhorn and spray fart spray down the aisles.
Nah, this is stupid.
It’s a fucking t-shirt. It’s not a threat. I don’t care what’s written on it.
It’s a fucking t-shirt. It’s not a threat. I don’t care what’s written on it.
- “can you put it on a t-shirt” was a specific point in the DeCSS “free speech” case
- thus, hate on a shirt is hate speech
- everything this icon stands for is hate in some form
Not exactly true. There are by law protected groups that can’t be refused the service just because they belong to that group.
That reason can’t be discriminatory, even on its face. And in some cases, like under ADA in US or EAA in EU, the requirements are even stricter. But yes, if the reason provided is not discriminatory or etherwise regulated by law, then they can refuse the service. But they can’t refuse for “any reason”.
You make it sound like it’s some kind of Trump shirt that wasn’t intentionally offensive. If that shit was an image of some other douche, he would have also been asked to leave as well.
This article is awful. It keeps asking the same question, “If a shirt is over the line, what else can they take from us?” But when the author repeatedly stumbles on the answer, they pivot back to questioning how a private business runs itself like they don’t see the obvious answer.
Why not stick to the safe operation of the flight as the main criteria rather than saying that not wearing a shirt inside out is “not complying with the directions of airline staff?” If it displays profanity then a quiet word may be a better solution, but Delta and all airlines will need to make it much clearer what is acceptable to wear on their flights when selling tickets.
The man was wearing a Trump shirt. Folks who wear that merch outside are both erratic and lack social awareness to self monitor in stressful situations. Now put that flight into a problematic scenario and ask yourself “is that someone that can reliably handle the pressure to help others without adding risk?”
Delta chose to deboard the passenger when they didn’t comply with a request. Refusing the request is a litmus test for general helpfulness and he failed.