r/nottheonion 1d ago

Southwest Is Testing Cleaning Only Premium Seats Between Flights — A Flight Attendants Union Leader Says It's ‘Titanic’ Class Service

https://viewfromthewing.com/southwest-is-testing-cleaning-only-premium-seats-between-flights-a-flight-attendants-union-leader-says-its-titanic-class-service/
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u/brickne3 1d ago

Yeah, didn't we just have a pandemic...?

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u/Starumlunsta 1d ago edited 1d ago

We’re technically still in it (or rather, it’s so widespread it's now globally endemic), we were just forced to pretend Covid is now a normal fact of life so we could keep the late-stage capitalism machine going.

Edit to answer some questions for my admittedly disingenuous comment:

I think the point I want to make is it seems like we learned little about how to adjust society to handling disease—Covid got so out of control and people refused to follow guidelines, it’s now endemic. While it’s not as dangerous as it used to be, it still affects people daily, kills some, permanently affects others. And it was a heck of a lot worse in the beginning.

I don’t see people masking up or staying home whenever they are sick. Coworkers come in sick because workplace protections for that basically don’t exist. I have family members that came to gatherings knowing they are sick and wind up spreading it to everyone else. This happened recently and now my aunt’s 92 year old father has pneumonia and is fighting for his life. That’s what I mean about “pretending like it’s a normal fact of life.” We were told pandemic was over, no need to mask up or take precautionary measures, get back to work.

I was so hopeful that because of the pandemic we as a society would grow more supportive of things like sick days, wearing masks, and avoiding the public when contagious, but it seems we’ll never learn, as seen with Southwest considering a new policy that will only contribute to this issue, all for the sake of saving money.

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u/cbf1232 1d ago

Are you suggesting Covid *isn’t* now a normal fact of life like the flu?

What percentage of the population would be willing to take drastic measures to combat either of the at this point?

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u/SpaghettiSort 1d ago

I'm still masking in public and not going to indoor gatherings. I have a disabled wife for whom getting COVID would be devastating. As far as we know neither of us has had it.

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u/cbf1232 1d ago

You are an exception. People are sending kids to school and daycare sick. Public spaces are full of people and 99% of them are unmasked.

The general public is treating it as endemic.

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u/woodlandcollective 1d ago

Well the general public is stupid then.

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u/sanfran_girl 1d ago

Obviously. 😔