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Kevin Smith thrown off airplane

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Smallpotatoes, Feb 15, 2010.

  1. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    Fat jokes are one thing. Interfering with someone else's comfort, when they've paid the same amount to fly as you have, is another. I don't have a problem with the two-seat policy, as long as it's fairly enforced.

    That someone has a glandular problem or whatever is still, at its core, their issue. There's no reason it should become mine.
     
  2. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    I appreciate the sentiment, and I'm certainly not speaking for anyone other than me. But I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing I was making things worse for someone else just by being there. My inability to not be fat falls squarely on my fat shoulders. No accommodations should be made for me because of it. I'd rather do a felony to myself than a misdemeanor to someone else. If that means I don't get to fly or have to pay more. My failures should not be subsidized.
     
  3. westcoastvol

    westcoastvol Active Member

    If you listen to the smodcast, Kevin talks about the flight they did put him on. He was let on first, took a front-row window seat (IIRC) and hahd an extra ticket for the seat next to him.

    A plus-sized woman sat down beside him, but just before the flight took off, SWA pulled her off the plane and had a brief word with her, giving her the same warning that they gave Kevin.
     
  4. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    People who don't have some compassion, and social graces, with regard to overweight and obese people simply are being small- and/or close-minded.

    Most have either never walked in such people's shoes, and cannot possibly realize the complexities of the issue, or the difficulties in trying to resolve it in any way that doesn't include the constant, life-long possibility/threat of recidivism, or they have taken the simplistic, selfish approach that "That would never/could never happen to me, or anyone I care about (which, considering the prevalence of this problem, is actually a reach in most cases), and so, therefore, I don't give a crap, and I wouldn't possibly treat anyone in such a position with any care, anyway, because of that."

    You know, because that might mean I condone their choices, or am encouraging them not to do anything about the problem if they can.

    My question is this: Would you, or society, take that same approach to a person who was struggling with some other social, addictive or emotional or difficult/embarrassing physical issue?

    I doubt it.

    I speak as someone who has done something about their weight problem. But, knowing and understanding what I do, I would never condemn, condescend to or humiliate anyone who still has yet to deal with their problems.

    This is one problem that is, quite simply, not that easy. It really isn't.

    Mystery Meat's sentiment and consideration of others is admirable. But look what he just wrote: "But I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing I was making things worse for someone else just by being there."

    Can people who have not done so ever imagine what it's like to actually feel this way about themselves, oftentimes every day, or all the time, in a deep and internally damaging way?...To have it, and daily everyday difficulties to deal with related to your weight, and to still not be able to really do something about it?

    Again, I doubt it.
     
  5. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    I wish more people had your sense of responsibility.
     
  6. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    Yeah, if I were ever in the position of having been forced to buy a second seat, you can be damn sure I'd defend that thing to the death.

    'Anyone sitting here?' 'Yes, my invisible friend Gerard. Please don't sit on him.'
     
  7. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    That was my comment about me. He was responding to that.

    And I wouldn't go for the histrionics like that, except that I know I've done it before, both on planes and other situations. Even relatively minor things like being with friends and going to a restaurant and knowing they can't go to a booth because my fat fucking ass wouldn't fit. Why should I feel anything other than ashamed about that? It's not discrimination, at least in my case, that's me paying the price for my own shortcomings instead of making others bear the brunt of my choices and inabilities.
     
  8. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    That raises another question: If you have multiple personalities, do you have to pay for each one, or is it like the baby flying for free if he sits on your lap?
     
  9. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    What if one of them is a fat guy?
     
  10. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    Yes, I caught that as I read again, and corrected it in my post. My apologies.

    As I said, I appreciate your sentiments, but people are not "made" to bear other people just by that person's existence.

    The ridiculous sentiments being expressed here by narrow-minded, thoughtless people are the same things that anybody who puts up with intolerance for the sake of intolerance has to face.

    And they shouldn't have to do so.
     
  11. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    I'm not sure whose side to take here. I can understand Smith's point -- he bought two tickets, per the guidelines. And I can see Southwest's point -- Smith tried to switch onto a flight where two seats weren't available.

    Bottom line, I don't think Smith did himself any favors by squawking on his website about it. Complain like any other customer, get your voucher and move on.

    And this comes from a huge fan of his movies.
     
  12. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    For the most part, you're right. Jammed into an airplane whose seat widths and pitches have been made smaller in the name of making an extra buck? In that case, it is relevant.

    And that's true even in the case of people who can't control their weight. Sometimes a medical condition imposes itself on you in a way that's unfair. I'm diabetic, so I can't go scuba diving. It sucks, but that's life.
     
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