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Nov. 10, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
17:32
Dennis and Julie - Airplanes Hold The Dregs Of Humanity
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Time Text
Planes and People Watching 00:09:19
It is endlessly fascinating to me to people watch on planes.
And my gosh, I'm just going to say it.
There are some dregs of humanity on airplanes these days.
Like, creepy, unkempt...
The airplane today is essentially a flying Greyhound bus.
It is really...
It's gotten like...
Do you know what a Greyhound bus is?
No, I don't.
I didn't think so.
You don't miss a beat.
That's true.
You don't miss a beat.
Yeah, I don't know what it is.
Okay.
I tried to play it off like I totally knew.
Great, so...
I'm just 24. Correct.
Greyhound bus, though, still exists.
That is the cheapest mode of transportation.
I think it's the cheapest.
And it is...
So you don't have, generally, the highest class.
I don't mean economic class.
Just the highest class of people.
On those buses.
Greyhound has stations or depots in every city in the country.
I mean, if you want to go from Oklahoma City to, I don't know, Stillwater, Oklahoma, if there is such a place, you take a Greyhound bus.
What else are you going to take?
There's no train.
There's no plane.
So, right, train, plane, and bus, basically.
Okay, so that's all.
I feel like the crowd on planes has gotten worse.
I don't know why.
I have no data.
The reason is because they dress like they're going to the beach.
It's also just, it's dress, it's that, I'm sorry to get TMI, though all of us have been there.
A lot of people are very unkempt.
They seem dirty.
Like, they're not being sanitary.
I mean, I was next to a woman, and she was, like, eating a burger next to me, and the ketchup was dripping, and I was just like, oh, my God.
And sometimes you see these people, and they look really creepy, and some of them look kind of drugged out, and you're just like, I would love to go around with a pen and paper on the flight and go, where are you going?
Or, sorry, well, we know where you're going.
Why are you flying to New York?
What do you do for a living?
Are you married?
Do you have children?
If you could distill your life motto into a sentence, what would it be?
I just want to get a profile.
Who are these people?
Just weird, weird people on these planes.
Has society gotten more weird?
By the way, were you reading a book about that?
About weirdness?
Oh, no, no, no.
I was, but that was a serious book.
It's about how Westerners are weird in the best sense.
That we morphed to a different drummer.
No, that was not about weird people.
I feel like society, this is either going to land totally or not land at all.
I feel like people have gotten more weird.
And more delinquent.
That's probably true.
And what I think about, remember, this is back to my old question to you.
Who has it worse?
You who didn't know America as I knew America.
Or me, who knew America like I knew America.
When I flew at your age, people didn't show up in shorts and t-shirts.
I sit in first class at 6'4 and traveling every single week of the year.
You don't need to explain it.
Don't worry.
Anyway, I sit in first class so I see everybody who comes on board.
And I think the next flight I am going to count the number of men, it's more with men, wearing t-shirts.
You know what?
You and I disagree on this.
I don't have a problem with comfortable clothes on a plane.
I agree with you, society in general.
And a big reason is because you didn't see society when it didn't just wear comfortable.
That's totally fair.
I think on planes, especially, you're so cramped, they're freezing.
You probably think they're wonderful.
I think they're freezing.
You think planes are freezing?
You don't think planes are freezing?
The first thing I do is turn on the air vent on top.
The first thing I do is...
I just turn off the air vent.
I bring scarves and double...
It's a classic male-female difference.
I will wear two long-sleeved shirts and a sweatshirt and I'll have a scarf.
And I'm freezing.
Oh, gosh.
You are so wrong about this.
Wow.
Wrong is the word.
Go ahead.
Yes, it is the word.
I hear you, society in general, we have definitely just succumbed to the dregs with regard to dressing.
But on planes, because they pack you in like sardines and they're so...
And it's so freezing.
I get the comfortable.
But again, to me, it's more like the sloppiness, the unkemptness, the unsanitariness, just people who seem drugged out, who kind of smell bad.
That's the kind of stuff that I get very worried about.
Because if you look at footage...
I mean, you know, this is your whole...
I actually knew America.
I look at footage of 50 years ago, what people looked like walking down the street.
You just didn't see people who looked like delinquents.
I'm sorry.
Both in the dress, but also in the sanitariness.
You just didn't see people like that.
Have you seen...
We may have mentioned this in the past, but have you seen...
Pictures of the way people dressed up for baseball games?
Yes, it depresses me.
In the 1950s, and we're not talking about the 1850s.
I know, it depresses me.
In the 1950s, everybody watching this or listening to this should just look up pictures.
It's easily found.
Baseball game in the 1950s.
Just, I guess, Google that.
People dressed so much better for a baseball game than they do for church today.
Yep.
Let alone for an airplane.
And why does it matter?
We've talked about this.
It doesn't matter to me.
It matters because one has to ask the question, why did people dress up whenever they left the house?
That is an important question to ask.
Baseball game, restaurant, airplane.
Why?
Because the underlying thesis was, it's my way of showing respect.
To my fellow individual.
Yes.
Well, we have talked about this, how there's no sense of respect for society, respect for the other people around you.
And the thing I was just thinking about as you were speaking, and I was contemplating why it is that we see, as I call them, way more delinquents or delinquent behavior today than we did back then.
And it's because there's no shame anymore.
People don't have any shame if they're on a plane eating a burger and their ketchup's dripping and they're playing the video game.
There's just...
We live in a society where it's like, let your freak flag fly.
Well, it's particularly interesting given the high status of the self-esteem movement.
Right.
So you would think, doesn't self-esteem demand that I dress and act in a certain way, comporting with my self-image?
No, no.
The self-esteem movement means do what is authentic to you.
Yes, that's right.
Despite whatever people around you make.
Like, if I were, I don't care how hungry, and I eat on planes.
I'm not against people eating on planes.
Against the ketchup falling.
If I had a burger and I thought that it was going to make the person next to me my sopiness, I don't care how hungry I was.
I would never do it.
Out of dignity and self-respect, I would feel so ashamed, even if I didn't know the person.
I wouldn't want people around me looking and being like, thank God I'm not next to that girl.
It's amazing how I resonate to your statement.
So I'm a big fan of tuna salad.
I love egg salad.
I love tuna salad.
I love chicken salad.
I just like that food.
And I don't eat the tuna salad on the plane because a lot of people don't like the smell of fish.
Yes, yes.
Yes, I'm very careful with what I eat on planes.
It's a very good point.
No, no, you made the point.
Oh.
So it is a very good point.
It's a great point.
It's an excellent point.
It's a very good point.
Yes.
Someone needs to...
I'll watch the movie on airplanes because we have to do another movie on airplanes and how just utterly miserable.
Government Regulation Surprise 00:03:48
And you know another thing?
I'll say this one thing and then I really want to get to your judgment point.
There's no customer service anymore.
It's really in every area of life.
Right.
So here's...
Boy, this will blow your mind.
Do you know that there was only one time in my life...
That I was for government regulation rather than free enterprise?
Yes, airplanes.
Yes.
Under Jimmy Carter.
Yes.
Had I told you this?
No, I heard you say it on the radio.
Oh.
And I remember at the time thinking, am I embarrassing myself?
Because it so contradicts what I stand for.
Right.
But I strongly suspected that once airlines compete only on price, They won't give a damn about how they treat you.
And I was right.
They used to compete on comfort and service and on time dependability.
Wait, so I don't understand.
So you were for the deregulation?
No, I said it was the only time in my life I was for government control rather than deregulation.
The government controlled airfares.
That's what happened until Jimmy Carter.
And then it was decided, and it made perfect sense, especially those of us for pre-enterprise, etc.
They said, no, let the free market rule in airline travel.
But there's no such thing as the free market ruling in airline travel.
First of all, there's no free market, no matter what.
Because...
I mean, there is to a certain extent, but there isn't entirely because there's a limitation on the number of gates.
See, the argument, the free enterprise argument runs as follows.
You make, you sell frankfurters.
Well, in the free market, I'll sell better frankfurters at a cheaper price.
I'll win.
Because there's no limit to the number of Frankfurters you can sell.
But there's an inherent limit to how many flights you can schedule.
It's based on the number of gates at an airport.
End of issue.
So it was always limited.
It was never really fully free enterprise.
But even putting that aside, all I knew was, if the government regulates the fares, how will they compete?
On excellence.
When they stop competing on excellence and only compete on fairs, you don't get excellence.
Yes.
The seats got much tighter.
There's less legroom today than there was before.
They would even advertise, oh, Fly United, we have more legroom than American, or something to that effect.
This must blow your mind.
Do you even know that everybody, even in coach, got a meal?
No.
That's amazing.
It is amazing because this is not that long ago, but in your life, it would not have applied.
Everyone, if first class got a meal, economy got a meal.
That's equity.
That was equity.
Where's the equity?
That's right.
That's the joke.
It was equity.
It was inclusion.
Because they competed on food.
You'll have a better meal on Delta, but not anymore.
Wow.
Oh, okay.
Wow.
I'm starting to feel bad for myself that I didn't live in the old America.
Airline Glamour Lost 00:04:54
Oh, well, that is funny.
It's not funny, but it's funny.
I mean, the memories...
There was glamour to airline travel.
I'm sorry.
Come again?
There was glamour?
Yes, that's right.
Oh, wow.
That would take an athletic, vigorous imagination.
So this will really get me in trouble.
But that's fine.
You're already in trouble.
Exactly.
Anyway, the question is not whether it's politically correct.
The question is whether there's any truth to what I'm about to say.
So here's another interesting example.
And I'm torn.
I fully admit it, I'm torn.
But until I don't know what year, I assume the 80s.
The airlines hired, I don't remember any male flight attendants.
They were called stewardesses.
That's what they were.
They weren't flight attendants.
They were stewardesses because it was basically always female.
They were almost always young.
And they had to meet certain physical requirements in terms of weight, for example.
Oh, really?
Oh, totally.
In terms of weight?
Yes.
Because it was a glamorous position.
Wow.
And you had to retire at a certain age.
I don't know, was it 40?
I mean, it was clearly a young age.
Then, totally understandably, they said, no, no, no, no.
It's not fair.
We want to work as long as we want.
We don't want any weight requirement.
And now you have a fair number, and I'm hardly thin, but I'm not a flight attendant.
And for talk show hosts and writing, weight doesn't matter.
But in the airplane today, it is not glamorous, obviously, in terms of who is serving you, because weight doesn't matter and age doesn't matter.
Now, this sounds sexist, this sounds ageist and all of that stuff.
The issue is not, is it sexist or ageist?
The issue is, is it true?
And I totally get it that people don't want to retire at 40 and look for other work.
But if you know in advance that is the nature of this job, then I don't know that it's inherently wrong.
But all I'm saying is there was a sense of glamour.
Well, look at models.
I mean, models have...
I think they've kind of tried to move in a different direction now.
Yeah, though they're moving back now.
It's interesting.
I was just reading Victoria's Secret, I think, is going back to its...
But models...
I mean, my God, to be a model, they're ruthless with your weight and your age.
Yeah, well, they were...
They're crazy on the models.
The models are almost anorexic.
So don't even start me.
The models' world is not healthy.
But the...
Believe me, the stewardess is...
I mean, let me tell you something.
If I would say to a friend, you know, I'm going out, which I did.
I remember once I was saying, oh, I'm having dinner with this American Airlines stewardess.
The assumption was she was really beautiful and glamorous and so on.
And they were right.
That was the assumption.
So all I'm saying is that was a different time.
So is it a better time?
In that regard, well, it's certainly better for the women who enter a flight.
There's no question.
But I don't think people should argue that no price is paid.
But it's all of one.
The stewardess was special and the passenger was special because they dressed special.
And so it's all gone.
It's just amazing in general to learn that...
That there was that glamour.
Again, what you should do is Google airline stewardesses 1970s or 1960s.
And you know what?
I'm sure, like, look, and I think it's been, you know, there are some more strict things like weight, and I think that stuff was better to have been done away with.
You know, it must have been more fun for the stewardesses to show up every day to work.
I would think so.
And feel beautiful.
Yeah.
And maybe even, like, flirt with a...
You know, I feel like...
Yeah.
Well, it was a freer world in that way.
By the way, I want to...
I want to...
I'm really of two minds on this.
Because I fully understand that a flight attendant could do her job.
Talking about the women now.
Can do her job and be overweight.
That's clear.
Even in terms of if, God forbid, there's an emergency.
I totally get that.
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