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United Airlines passenger incident triggers blunt reaction

The episode prompted some questions about assumptions travelers have on flights.

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Unruly passenger behavior during air travel has been attracting increasing attention in the past few years as unfortunate incidents have happened with more regularity.

And one episode on a recent United Airlines  (UAL)  flight has prompted some discussion about presumptions people have about each other.

Related: Another National Park just made it more difficult for you to visit

During the Covid-19 pandemic, frustrated travelers — often fueled by overconsumption of alcohol — frequently clashed with flight attendants over compliance with mask-wearing requirements and other matters.

But unruly passenger incidents only increased from 2021 to 2022, after most pandemic rules and restrictions had already been lifted.

On a recent United Airlines airplane, one passenger was removed from a flight after a bizarre confrontation with a woman at a boarding gate in Houston, according to a post in the r/unitedairlines subreddit.

A United Airlines passenger gets aggressive at a boarding gate

A family member had reached United's Global Services status, so they treated their sister and brother-in-law to some first class honeymoon flights.

The writer of the post was able to meet the traveling couple during a layover at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

The post, written by Reddit user CanWeBeSure, explained how the incident occurred.

"My sister and her husband don't fly United often, so when the GA (gate agent) started whispering the pre-boarding process and I went up when GS (and 1k at the same time) was called, they followed me, even though they were group 1," CanWeBeSure wrote. "When my sister went to scan her boarding pass, a man behind her said 'you shouldn't be here, I have priority.' She replied with, 'You know, it pays to be kind sometimes.' The man said, 'how's this for being kind?' and proceeded to bump into her, knocking her off balance."

The sister, according to the post, told family members what happened when they got to their seats, because she was behind them when the incident occurred, and they didn't see it.

"A few minutes later, a FA (flight attendant) asked her about what happened and whether she felt safe on the plane with that man on board," the story continued. "She didn't jump to say she felt unsafe, but she gave an honest recount of what happened. The FA said that was all she needed to hear and said she would discuss it with the pilots."

"Shortly after, the GA approached the man a few rows behind us and told him that he could either get off the plane or they would make him get off the plane," the writer continued. "He stood up, grabbed his bag, and walked off as we heard an applause from behind us."

A United Airlines aircraft is seen flying above clouds.

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The United Airlines incident prompts thoughts about travelers' assumptions

Travel writer Gary Leff of the View From the Wing blog considered this episode and recalled a few notes on assumptions people make about other travelers.

First, he remembered reading a trip report years ago where another travel writer, boarding for first class, had a business class passenger shove past him saying "business class."

"The business class passenger mind just couldn't comprehend a young kid flying first (and may not have even known about such a thing as true first class)," Leff wrote.

Leff also recounted how, historically, women were a small minority of first class passengers.

"Young women stood out in a sea of middle aged men — but often received dismissive treatment, including from female flight attendants," Leff wrote.

In the United incident in Houston, one benefit of early boarding is that passengers don't have to gate check their bags, Leff noted. Also, Global Services and 1K passengers do not have to stand in line for long and generally can expect to find overhead bin space near their seat locations.

"The person doing the shoving here was accomplishing both of those things, whether the woman he shoved got on ahead of him or not," Leff wrote. "Shoving was just an act of rage against someone he didn’t feel deserved to get on ahead of him, even though he was disadvantaged in no way at all."

"There's a weird status game going on here that at least most of us avoid turning into physical aggression," Leff continued. 

"And as a part of that game we engage in assumptions about the people around us, and about who they are and therefore what they're entitled to — and those assumptions are wrong more than we're programmed to realize."

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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What’s So Great About The Great Reset, Great Taking, Great Replacement, Great Deflation, & Next Great Depression?

What’s So Great About The Great Reset, Great Taking, Great Replacement, Great Deflation, & Next Great Depression?

Authored by Jim Quinn…

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What's So Great About The Great Reset, Great Taking, Great Replacement, Great Deflation, & Next Great Depression?

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move all the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre.” 

– Frank Zappa

“In the past few years, you have been living within an escalating hybrid war. Globally, we have witnessed overt media control and propaganda campaigns; censorship, including arrests of people speaking in public; monitoring of all electronic communications and physical contact tracing; brutally enforced lock-down and masking requirements, with people being beaten, handcuffed, and arrested, even in their homes; suspension of healthcare services and weakening of healthcare systems; invasive testing requirements for employment and travel; forced quarantine of travelers; and coerced quarantine and “vaccination” of the healthy, general population.

Governments dropped all pretense of democracy and were emboldened to open despotism. There were no functioning checks on this power. The courts provided no effective recourse to the public. Governments broadly abused fundamental human rights using as justification prevention of the spread of infectious diseases, which are, in truth, a great many, ever-present, and continually evolving. And so, this justification, if allowed to stand, assures the end of democracy and installation of openly despotic government.”

– David Webb – The Great Taking

After being fortunate enough to participate in a two hour zoom call with David Rogers Webb, author of The Great Taking, I was intrigued enough to download his free book and read it over the course of two days. I found David to be a humble, intelligent, thoughtful man who is deeply concerned about the future of mankind, leading him to write a book, putting him and his family at great personal risk. Using his decades of experience in the financial world and undertaking painstaking research regarding the systematic long-term rewriting of codes, laws, and regulations by those who constitute Bernays’ invisible government (aka Deep State), Webb makes a strong case the Ruling Elite/Deep State/Shadowy billionaires in smoke filled rooms have set the groundwork to crash the global financial system and abscond with all that remains of our accumulated wealth. I could feel his angst and anxiety about the future as he explained the details of their plan. After reading the book, I found myself agitated, angry, and feeling helpless.

You can’t help but be depressed that everything you’ve worked for over the last forty years could be “legally” stolen by those controlling the levers of our financial system in an instant. My first reaction was, how can they do this and expect to succeed. Wouldn’t the citizens across the world react violently and start hanging the culprits? And then I remembered how the masses reacted to being locked down, masked, forced to not earn a living, censored for questioning the government, arrested for swimming alone in the ocean, imprisoned for protesting a rigged election, and being coerced and threatened into getting jabbed with a toxic gene altering concoction which neither protected you from contracting, spreading or dying from the annual flu (sold and marketed as the greatest deadly pandemic in history).

The covid scandemic was nothing but a dry run to see how far they could push their agenda, using authoritarian measures and the full power of the surveillance state and regime media, in scaring the masses into compliance. It worked like a charm, with the vast majority of the global population proving to be nothing more than scared compliant sheep. The ruling elite are feeling their oats and no longer feel bound to follow any laws, constitutions, or moral code.

They have shifted from relying on Huxley’s dystopian vision of a populace enslaved by pleasure, drugs, and technological distractions to Orwell’s surveillance, fear, and boot on the face dystopia, where the masses will do as they are told, or else. The caressing is over, and the crushing has begun. When the Great Taking commences, it will be done ruthlessly, enforced by those with truncheons and automatic weapons, sold to the masses as the only way to save humanity, and enforced through the legal machinations they have surreptitiously put in place over the last two decades.

“People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.”

 – Niccolo Machiavelli

As David Webb lays out in painstaking detail in his book, using factual provable data and documentation, as opposed to the false narratives and propaganda spewed by those who have hatched this decades long diabolical plot to abscond with all of your hard-earned wealth, the ruling oligarchy have designed a financial system which will absolutely self-destruct when they choose to pull that lever. It has been premeditated and solidified in legal code that their scheme, through central banks and their co-conspirator financial institutions, will sweep all of your collateral (aka your financial wealth) into their grubby little hands, in order to save “the system”.

We will be left destitute, desperate, and indebted. With no means to service your debt, they will “legally” take the assets associated with that debt. Any rational critical thinking person who has been watching its government add $1 trillion to the national debt every 100 days, driving our annual interest on that debt to $1.6 trillion by the end of 2024, encouraging and aiding millions of third world diseased mutts to stream across our borders and be shipped to cities across the country, and purposely creating massive inflation while sabotaging our energy, food, and transportation systems, has to be asking what possible purpose could there be for these insane policies and actions. It only makes sense if their plan is to crash the global financial system on purpose.

David Webb is convinced that is the plan:

 “Inevitably following the “Everything Bubble” will be the “Everything Crash.” Once prices of essentially everything crash and all financial firms rapidly become insolvent, these collateral management systems will automatically sweep all collateral to the Central Clearing Counter-parties (CCPs) and Central Banks. The trap, into which all nations have been herded, is ready and waiting to be sprung. There will be an epic end point to the decades of seemingly out-of-control financialization, which served no beneficial purpose for humanity, but the devastating effects of which are apparent even now. It has been a deliberate strategy executed over decades. This was the purpose of inflating the global bubble entirely out of proportion with any real-world thing or activity, which must end in disaster for so many, with no pockets of resilience allowed to remain in any country.” 

– David Webb – The Great Taking

Your cognitive dissonance and normalcy bias tells you they could not and would not initiate such an evil plot. I know I don’t want to believe this could or will happen, because as a working professional for the last 38 years I’ve followed the rules and believed if I saved for my retirement, lived beneath my means, and invested my savings carefully, I would be rewarded with a relatively comfortable retirement. It is extremely difficult for me to comprehend how these psychopaths in suits, pulling the levers of this world, could hatch such a malevolent conspiracy, designed to cause so much misery and pain to so many.

But then I realize what they have done since 2019 with their totalitarian lockdowns, death jabs, surveillance mechanisms, imprisonment of dissenters, stealing of elections, destruction of societal norms, perpetuation of an invasion on our southern border, and provocation of global conflict designed to start World War 3. And yes, I do believe these traitorous billionaire scum would do this. David Webb shows how they did it before in 1933.

FDR shutdown all banks in the United States on March 6, 1933. Then Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 on March 9. According to William L. Silber, who was an economic advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Fed miraculously and suddenly in March of 1933 had the means “to supply unlimited amounts of currency to reopened banks”, which were, of course, only the banks selected by the Federal Reserve System.

The key point is the Fed chose which connected banks would survive and which banks would be permanently put out of business, resulting in millions losing their life savings. The Fed had the resources to keep thousands of banks open and avoid the pain and suffering for millions of Americans, but they purposely inflicted pain upon millions. Why? David Webb contends the Fed created the panic, provided a solution that benefited them and their crony banks, destroyed the lives of millions, and took their assets (homes, cars, farms, appliances) on a grand scale. This was done to inflict pain, vanquish the masses and foster a facade of power, which is as true today as it was then. Webb asks the relevant questions and provides the answers:

“Did “the bankers” need to take this property? What was the real purpose? Can you get past the idea that they were trying to help? Ask yourself: if they don’t want your money, and they don’t really want or need your stuff, and they’re not trying to help you, what do they want? What’s the point of all of their efforts? This may be difficult to hear: It was a deliberate strategy. It was about ultimate, complete power, allowing no centers of resistance. And so, it was about deprivation. It was about subjugation—and it still is, in more ways than we know. It was not about helping people then, and it’s not about helping people now. It is all part of the same deliberate herding of humanity and elimination of any pockets of resilience, which plagues us still.” 

– David Webb – The Great Taking

The Federal Reserve is owned by the Too Big To Trust Wall Street Behemoth Banks and does the bidding of the Deep State. The Fed is indemnified by the government (aka you and me) for any losses they incur, as they are currently sitting on $1 trillion of unrealized losses. They were a shadowy privileged institution in 1933 and have only become more powerful, shadowy, and corrupt today. They set the precedent of taking bank deposits from average Americans in the 1930s and will do it again without the slightest hesitation.

They have rigged the regulatory system in a way that makes anyone holding cash in banks an unsecured creditor with no enforceable claim to their own cash when they decide to crash the system. They won’t bail out the banks the way they did in 2008/2009. Too messy and time consuming. They will conduct a bail-in by “shifting” all your deposits from what you thought was your safe bank account to the accounts of a “protected class” created through legal machinations by our Deep State rulers. They did a test run in Cyprus in 2013. This is what is coming.

Since 2008 the Mega-Banks and Mega-Corps, with the patronage of the Fed, have achieved tremendous success in their endeavors to enrich themselves, while driving small businesses and small banks into bankruptcy, and impoverishing the masses they feign to embrace. Everything they do is built upon a foundation of lies, misinformation, disinformation, and propagandized narratives spun by their regime media co-conspirators.

Today’s “Everything Bubble” was created by the Fed, using the justification of “saving the world” during the Great Financial Crisis of 2008/2009 and “saving the world” again from the Great Flu Virus of 2020/2022 by lowering interest rates to zero for the most part of 15 years. The major Wall Street banks were all effectively bankrupt in the Fall of 2008 and should have been liquidated using our existing bankruptcy laws. Stockholders and bondholders would have been wiped out, while depositors would have been made whole. Their assets would have been sold off to smaller banks who did not take world destroying risks and leverage themselves 30 to 1.

Everything that has happened since 2008 has been nothing more than a vast pillaging operation disguised as saving humanity from a never-ending series of crises created by the very psychopaths who purposely created the crises in the first place. So why would it be so inconceivable to think they would initiate their final take down of the financial system, siphoning the remaining wealth of the masses?

How else can we explain the seemingly insane measures undertaken by the captured and controlled politician puppets, along with the central bankers (owned by Wall Street), and sold to the masses as normal by their regime media mouthpieces? They have secretively put all the pieces in place from a legal and regulatory standpoint to drain the remaining wealth from the financial accounts of tens of millions when they initiate the next planned and executed financial “crisis”.

Amidst the global chaos, as a wave of insolvencies sweeps the across the developed world, bloodshed from the ensuing global and civil wars scars the earth, wailing and gnashing of teeth by the victims reaches a crescendo, the Fed and their owners will not only survive, but thrive. We’ve seen this show before. During covid we needed to follow their orders so we wouldn’t die or kill our neighbors. It was all a lie. This time, with your money, investments, and assets purchased with debt in the hands of the few connected financial institutions, the fear will be putting food on the table, obtaining healthcare, and trying to survive.

Those in control will use their regime media propaganda outlets to paint the narrative, everything they have done is to insure the survival of our system. They will act like noble caretakers of humanity, doing whatever it takes for mankind, while initiating the entire financial system demolition in the first place. They are counting on the ignorant masses to remain ignorant, fearful, and terrorized, willing to do whatever they are told to survive. According to David Webb, the CBDCs will be their solution. It’s all about power and control, just as it has always been.

“The focus of the Atlantic Council is military strategy, not economics. And what is the Atlantic Council focusing on now? Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which is virtual money backed and issued directly by central banks. All G7 economies have now moved into the development stage of CBDC, and 18 of the G20 countries are now in the advanced stage of development. Why is this happening now globally? Is it really a desire to bring “financial inclusion” to the disadvantaged? Why would The Atlantic Council, a military strategy think tank, focus on CBDC? We are living within a global hybrid war, a component of which will be the collapse of the banking, money, and payments systems globally. War aims will be achieved by means other than kinetic war. The foremost aim of the people who have privately controlled the central banks and money creation is that they will remain in power, forever. They can risk no pockets of resistance.” 

– David Webb – The Great Reset

They have been setting up the infrastructure for CBDCs, just as they rigged the financial system to abscond with your wealth, for over a decade, as they plan to force you into their new totalitarian electronic gulag. When they are confident their CBDC scheme is ready to launch, they will push the demolition button on the debt saturated house of cards, known as our financial system. When you wrap your head around their evil blueprint to enslave the world, you can make sense of what you see happening with your own eyes. What is happening is not normal. It makes no sense to any normal critical thinking person, but the majority of the population are addicted to their phones and believe whatever they are told by their government, regime media, Tik Tok influencers, and Facebook friends.

How could our “elected” leaders be adding $1 trillion to the national debt every 100 days, while jacking the interest on that debt to $1.6 trillion per year, unless they want to crash the financial system. How could our “president” (his handlers) encourage, sponsor, and facilitate the invasion of our country by millions of 3rd world, tuberculosis ridden, mutts, drug dealers, child traffickers, and terrorists, unless they want to collapse our cities and social welfare system?

How could our government medical agencies promote the poisoning of the masses with a gene altering Big Pharma jab, the mutilation of children because they were brainwashed by mentally ill left-wing teachers who told them they can be whatever sex they choose, drugging young boys who act like boys in an effort to make them like girls, and doling out anti-depressants like candy to middle aged unhappy cat ladies who bought the entire feminism narrative hook, line and sinker, unless they wanted to create a nation of physically and mentally damaged, easily manipulated drones?

In addition, they are attempting to destroy our energy infrastructure, our farmers, and small businesses, while attempting to ignite a civil war within our borders and a global war with Ukraine and the Middle East, to further spur a global collapse. First collapse, then controls through CBDCs.

“The key difference with the CBDC is the central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and also, we will have the technology to enforce that. In other words: CBDC means absolute control and so, if the “old” money system somehow collapses, new money will be provided by the central banks in the form of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the new and improved control system. Imagine . . . it is chaos. You have lost everything but your smart phone (If you don’t have one, don’t worry—you will be issued one.) You will download an app. You will click boxes agreeing to everything. You will become increasingly indebted with each payment you make using the CBDC you are “given” on your phone. You will be told what to do and what not to do from then on. You will comply if you want to eat.” 

– David Webb – The Great Reset

Deprivation and subjugation are their goals and being they are evil psychopaths; they have no empathy for you or your plight. They have moved into the Orwellian stage of power for its own sake and a boot stomping on your face forever. Webb contends the “Great Reset” is anti-human and will introduce a modern-day techno-feudalistic system, built upon a foundation of fear, scarcity, surveillance, and threats of violence for non-compliance.

A caste system more extreme than currently exists will separate the lords of the manor from the enslaved serfs. The first Great Depression was caused by the Fed, benefited the favored Wall Street banks, created a decade of deflation, bankrupted businesses, and destroyed the lives of the poorest. This Greater Depression will be far worse, as the immense consumer credit and mortgage credit bubbles will result in tens of millions losing their homes, automobiles, and various electronic gadgets bought on credit. Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it.

“When the “Everything Bubble” is imploded, we will face a deflationary depression, which will span many years, even decades. This coming Great Deflation is intrinsic to the Great Taking. The Architects of the Great Taking have planned and prepared to use this dynamic fully, secure in their knowledge that, as night follows day, massive and prolonged deflation will certainly follow the epic debt expansion super cycle, which they created. The Architects have assured that they alone are positioned to take everything, and that you and your children are positioned on the other side of that, i.e., to lose everything, to be enslaved and even destroyed by it. People will be knocked down, and not be able to get up again. That is intentional, as the populace has been systematically encouraged to go deeply into debt.

Whom the gods would destroy, they first cause to borrow at low rates of interest! As in the Great Depression, prolonged deflation will ensure that people who are in debt will not be able to make payments on their debts, let alone repay them. They will be trapped. All property and businesses financed with debt will be taken. With profound and persistent deflation assured to stretch over many years, debt becomes a powerful weapon of conquest. Debt is not a real thing. It is an invention, a construct designed to take real things.

– David Webb – The Great Reset

Ever since reading Webb’s book my mind has been unsettled, trying to grasp how this could possibly happen, while trying to convince myself it won’t. We’ve muddled along for years and all predictions of collapse due to unsustainable debt growth have failed to materialize. My mind tells me Webb is right, while my heart hopes he’s wrong. But I know hope is not an option. No one in my financial position, or likely 99.9% of the population, will be able to avoid this accelerating train coming down the track.

Every non-insider on the planet will be negatively impacted by the Great Taking. The best we can do is prepare and prep based on our resources, location, family situation, abilities, and attitude. Eliminating debt, having cash-on-hand, having precious metals on-hand, being heavily armed, creating a local network of like-minded people, having no cash or investments in Wall Street banks, and even owning bitcoin in your private wallet, could help alleviate some of the pain from the “Great Taking”.

Webb recognizes we are already in a hybrid war against these psychopathic billionaire totalitarians bent on implementing their Great Reset, simultaneously with their Great Taking. It is a multi-front war waged on the financial battlefield, demographic battlefield, culture battlefield, technological battlefield, and ultimately will need to be settled on traditional battlefields across the globe. The level of malevolence required to perpetrate these heinous crimes against humanity is incomprehensible to the average person, therefore the masses don’t believe anyone would commit such acts. Webb knows these people exist and are capable of the vilest atrocities.

“Wars have always been not so much about taking things as about subjugation of populations on all sides. Vast destruction and death are acceptable to their planners. You might ask, how could the people plotting and executing such insane schemes be held together? I suggest that it has something to do with the binding power of shared guilt, of the criminal pact. The perpetrators are each and all bound, whether explicitly or unconsciously, by evidence of shameful, treasonous acts committed against their own people. The commission of crime is a power totem among them. The more heinous the crime, the more powerful is the binding force.” 

– David Webb – The Great Taking

Based on my observations during the zoom call with David Webb, he struck me as a mild-mannered guy who is obviously nervous about the future of the world and can identify the culprits, based on their actions. Despite understanding their level of psychotic behavior and disregard for the future of humanity, he seems to think they can be defeated through non-violent means. I think that is a false hope, as you can only defeat power through superior power on a physical, intellectual, and spiritual level.

I do believe they are losing control, resulting in an acceleration of their plans, ramping up of violence, blatant disregard for laws or the Constitution, and mistakes and missteps on their part. Based on their need for an accelerated collapse, I have a hard time believing we make it to the November elections without a triggering event initiating the dominoes toppling, and all hell breaking loose financially, militarily, and on a societal basis. Their deceptions are being revealed and an increasing number of citizens are angry and unwilling to comply.

The “Great Taking” is a well thought out plan, but it is still just a plan. It can be thwarted and resisted if enough people awaken from their normalcy stupor. The odds are not in our favor, as the masses remain ignorant of what is coming, but the more people who can be awakened, the better our chances. We know the Deep State billionaire brain trust behind these schemes are heavily guarded and protected from us commoners. But these aren’t the heavily compensated apparatchik front men doing the day-to-day dirty work. These vile cogs in this machinery of destruction have names, addresses, and families. Fear works both ways. The good guys also have tech savvy individuals capable of throwing electronic monkey wrenches into the gears of the Deep State machinery.

This entire episode is playing out during the second half of this Fourth Turning, where chaos and bloodshed reach a crescendo, as we approach the climax. The battle between good and evil couldn’t be any starker. Everyone will be forced to choose a side. I’ve spent the last sixteen years of my life trying to convince as many people as possible this nation has been on a burning platform of unsustainable choices. Instead of trying to extinguish the flames, our so-called leaders have sprayed gasoline onto the burning platform.

We are closer than ever to seeing that platform collapse and sink to the bottom of the sea. The Great Reset and Great Taking schemes must be prevented from happening at all costs. Our moment of truth approaches. We need to meet the challenges ahead with no fear and no doubts. It’s time to channel our inner Josey Wales if we want to win. Good luck and Godspeed.

Tyler Durden Sun, 04/07/2024 - 23:20

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United Airlines passenger incident sparks abrupt, strong reaction

The episode prompted some questions about assumptions travelers have on flights.

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Unruly passenger behavior during air travel has been attracting increasing attention as unfortunate incidents have happened with more regularity the past few years.

And one episode on a recent United Airlines  (UAL)  flight has prompted some discussion about presumptions people have about each other.

Related: Another National Park just made it more difficult for you to visit

During the Covid-19 pandemic, frustrated travelers — often fueled by overconsumption of alcohol — frequently clashed with flight attendants over compliance with mask-wearing requirements and other matters.

But unruly passenger incidents only increased from 2021 to 2022, after most pandemic rules and restrictions had already been lifted.

On a recent United Airlines airplane, one passenger was removed from a flight after a bizarre confrontation with a woman at a boarding gate in Houston, according to a post in the r/unitedairlines subreddit. 

The post, written by Reddit user CanWeBeSure, explained how the incident occurred.

A family member had reached United's Global Services status, so they treated their sister and brother-in-law to some first class honeymoon flights.

The writer of the post was able to meet the traveling couple during a layover at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

"My sister and her husband don't fly United often, so when the GA (gate agent) started whispering the pre-boarding process and I went up when GS (and 1k at the same time) was called, they followed me, even though they were group 1," CanWeBeSure wrote. "When my sister went to scan her boarding pass, a man behind her said 'you shouldn't be here, I have priority.' She replied with, 'You know, it pays to be kind sometimes.' The man said, 'how's this for being kind?' and proceeded to bump into her, knocking her off balance."

The sister, according to the post, told family members what happened when they got to their seats, because she was behind them when the incident occurred and they didn't see it.

"A few minutes later, a FA (flight attendant) asked her about what happened and whether she felt safe on the plane with that man on board," the story continued. "She didn't jump to say she felt unsafe, but she gave an honest recount of what happened. The FA said that was all she needed to hear and said she would discuss it with the pilots."

"Shortly after, the GA approached the man a few rows behind us and told him that he could either get off the plane or they would make him get off the plane," the writer continued. "He stood up, grabbed his bag, and walked off as we heard an applause from behind us."

A United Airlines aircraft is seen flying above clouds.

Shutterstock

"The business class passenger mind just couldn't comprehend a young kid flying first (and may not have even known about such a thing as true first class)," Leff wrote.

Leff also recounted how, historically, women were a small minority of first class passengers.

"Young women stood out in a sea of middle aged men — but often received dismissive treatment, including from female flight attendants," Leff wrote.

In the Houston United Airlines incident, one benefit of early boarding is that passengers don't have to gate check their bags, Leff noted. Also, Global Services and 1K passengers do not have to stand in line for long and generally can expect to find overhead bin space near their seat locations.

"The person doing the shoving here was accomplishing both of those things, whether the woman he shoved got on ahead of her or not," Leff wrote. "Shoving was just an act of rage against someone he didn’t feel deserved to get on ahead of him, even though he was disadvantaged in no way at all."

"There's a weird status game going on here that at least most of us avoid turning into physical aggression," Leff continued. "And as a part of that game we engage in assumptions about the people around us, and about who they are and therefore what they're entitled to — and those assumptions are wrong more than we're programmed to realize."

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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Technology is changing the New York Auto Show, but it shouldn’t change you

There are more ways to experience cars beyond the walls of the Javits Center, you just need to look.

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Last week, I fulfilled a bucket list item that I had since I was a kid: cover an auto show car reveal in-person.

It was exciting to attend my hometown auto show in a way that I haven’t done before. I wish to do it again, but I felt something different when I walked onto the show floor at the Javits Center.

The show is a much different show than from what I remember.

Related: Rivian borrows a page from Tesla's playbook with its latest update

The 2024 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) in New York, US, on Thursday, March 28, 2024. 

Bloomberg/Getty Images

There were cars, but lots fewer than before. Everything seemed spaced out, as if the cars on the floor were holding onto two parking spots instead of one to make it look like it is taking up more space. 

As I walked across the show floor during the first press day, I noticed that while there were cars, there weren’t many brands actually exhibiting at the show, reduced to an amount that seemed like there wasn't that much diversity and variety.

That morning, I attended Hyundai’s keynote for the updated Tucson crossover SUV and Santa Cruz light pickup. In the audience were some of the autoworkers who worked on the assembly line of the Tucson and Santa Cruz in Montgomery, Alabama.

Hyundai's booth at the 2024 New York International Auto Show, shortly before their presentation. Underneath the wraps are the updated Santa Cruz light pickup and Tucson crossover SUV.

James Ochoa

The automaker did not fly out just their employees; they brought out whole families including the children, to attend the show as special guests and shake hands with executives from Hyundai's North American and South Korean offices.

As I observed the children who sat next to their parents in the front row of the reveal, I thought to myself; 'man, they flew all the way out here. They get some days off from school, and it is probably their first time in a big city like New York. But, they don't know how the auto show used to be.'

Not to portray myself as someone that much older or wiser, but when I was their age, the New York International Auto Show was a completely different animal from the show that is today.

TheStreet writer James Ochoa, age 17, excited to see a Porsche 911R on a school trip to the 2016 New York International Auto Show.

James Ochoa

Forgive me for romanticizing it, but the auto show was a place of wonder, a place for discovery. It was a no-holds-barred and no judgement environment for those in the market for a car or just browsing around to see what's new and what's cool. 

It was also a place where the proletariat could experience what the bourgeoisie drive and vice versa without judgement.

Every year, right around Easter, my dad could plop down in the drivers seat of a Ford Mustang GT and fantasize about rolling into his office parking garage, or long drives with my mom. It was also an appropriate place where my sister could [jokingly] beg my parents for a Lexus or Mercedes. 

TheStreet writer James Ochoa, age 11 behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon at the 2010 New York International Auto Show.

James Ochoa

The auto show allowed me to see all those cool, expensive cars that celebrities showed off on MTV Cribs, or the sports cars that I only got to experience through a Playstation 2 controller playing Gran Turismo 4.

During these two weeks around Easter, budding and passionate enthusiasts are meant to gather and experience a diverse cornucopia of the automotive world, as well as share their excitement and criticism in an open environment.

But as time goes on, people change and the world changes around them.

'We are not cavemen, we have technology'

Steve Jobs demonstrates the iPad as he speaks during an Apple Special Event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on January 27, 2010 in San Francisco, California. 

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

If there is one person that I can solely 'blame' for all of this, it would be the late Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. Don’t get me wrong, I love Apple’s suite of electronics, but there was a formula that he perfected.

If there is one thing that he and his successor Tim Cook are really good at, it’s making the layman excited about electronics. They sold customers on the latest and greatest gadgets, even if the only thing that actually changed on the damn iPhone was a new color or the 3.5mm headphone jack moving from the top of the phone to the bottom (or completely removing the headphone jack altogether).

How did they turn the public into Apple fans? Keynotes.

Members of the media inspect the new Apple Vision Pro headset during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 05, 2023 in Cupertino, California. Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the annual WWDC22 developer conference with the announcement of the new Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset. 

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

It’s a perfect formula. Apple announces that they will have an “event,” and will generate buzz by keeping what is being revealed a secret. People on tech blogs will then start talking about whether it’s a new iPod, iPhone, iPad, only to be revealed at a presentation that is live-streamed to the masses.

The best thing about it? Whether the presentation takes place in a packed theatre or in front of a camera in a studio, it will be picked up by the world’s press, whether they cover tech or not.

And it works. 

Believe me, I am a sucker too. — Sent from my iPhone

The new MG3 electric model car is presented at the booth of MG Motor company owned by Chinese state-owned carmaker SAIC on February 26, 2024 during a press day ahead of the Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva. 

FABRICE COFFRINI/Getty Images

Car companies picked up on this trend too, live-streaming various reveals and events from all over the world to computer, smartphone and TV screens everywhere.

Currently, Toyota is making a huge buzz on car blogs because it is teasing the next-generation of one of its most popular SUVs: the 4Runner. At the time of this writing, they have just revealed a date of April 9 for its reveal event.

But there is one problem with that formula: it has the ability to eliminate a physical presence for the reveal.

Companies do not need to spend money to actually be anywhere. After the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw companies become more inclined to use digital means and save some money, rather than to drag everyone to one room where they can get their germs all up in each other.

Though WWDC takes place at Apple Park, Apple events these days are pre-recorded. Nintendo Direct doesn’t take place at E3 anymore, nor did Dodge’s announcement of the new electric Charger Daytona take place at an actual auto show. Make matters worse, E3 does not exist anymore, and Stellantis does not participate in any auto shows anymore.

The show floor at the 2024 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) in New York, US, on Thursday, March 28, 2024. 

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Actually, when you look at the map of this year's New York International Auto Show, a lot of brands that showed off their extensive lineup at previous auto shows are no longer there anymore.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, Dodge, Maserati, and Mini are just some of the brands that are missing at this year’s auto show.

With all the brands that used to participate, the main halls of the Javits Center used to resemble a packed parking lot during the auto show. Today, it feels like a sparsely packed showroom, where the square footage is occupied by more dead space than actual cars.

But times change.

A reflection and a solution

Signage at the Javits Convention Center during the 2024 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) in New York, US, on Thursday, March 28, 2024. 

Bloomberg/Getty Images

The New York International Auto Show and other auto shows around the world are evolving into something that may have them playing a different role in the future. But at the same time, as technology evolves, “virtual experiences,” online keynotes and product announcements do not match having the car in front of you in the flesh — even behind a shin-height barrier of plexiglass.

Car manufacturers are even turning to the metaverse to launch their cars. In October 2023, BMW announced a new model through Fortnite. Yes, the video game Fortnite. Additionally, Hyundai has launched what it calls "immersive content" through the video game Roblox. 

But technology is not all that bad, it can help you become a more involved car enthusiast. Despite what experts and politicians have said about the inherent dangers of social media, it has helped me become closer to my local car community.

BMW enthusiasts inspect the front facia of a vintage BMW M3 (E30) at a Cars and Coffee event in Fort Lee, N.J.

James Ochoa

View the 6 images of this gallery on the original article

I know that some of you are reading this are asking ‘where can I go to see some cool cars besides the auto show?’

My answer: get closer to your local car community and attend any and every local car show, car meet, and cars and coffee that you can.

Announcements for car shows, car meets and events, as well as pages for local car clubs for any brand, classic or modern, are all for the discovery on Instagram and other social media platforms.

A simple search of "car club" or "cars and coffee" and wherever state, big city or local area you live in on Instagram or Facebook is a great start to get your feet wet. Additionally, websites like Hemmings provide listings for events in your local area.

Events like these allow you to get a pulse of how owners feel about their cars and even get closer to some cars that you may only be able to see in the flesh at the big auto show in the city without actually having to go to the city.

Some shows around where I live are also attended by local vehicle dealers — the first time I ever sat in a Hyundai Ioniq 5 was at a Hyundai dealer’s booth at a car show put on by a local high school.

More automotive stories:

My favorite kind of event is Cars and Coffee, they usually take place in parking lots, or on closed streets adjacent to coffee shops on the weekends and are attended by an eclectic variety of modern and classic cars. New and old Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, classic BMWs, old 60's and 70's muscle cars and multi-million dollar collectible hypercars are just some of the cool rides that I have seen at various Cars and Coffee events without being held back by a plexiglass barrier.

Point is, there is much more to car events than auto shows like the New York International. Though the forces that be might change the auto show for better or worse because of the advent of new technology, technology can help you expand your horizons.

With spring coming up, it means one thing to car enthusiasts like me: it is car show season.

If something doesn't scratch your itch, you just need to look beyond what you already know.

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