The Ambulance Chaser of Empathy

Self-centered JetBlue crybaby Steven Slater is an embarrassment to us all

Original stories: The Wall Street JournalMoney.CNN

What has Steven Slater done that he deserves to be congratulated? He’s not a hero, and he’s not brave. His self-centered manipulation of JetBlue passengers for his own gain is a slap in the face to airline travelers and to people everywhere who choose restraint over childish impulse. Steven Slater is a reckless quitter who, if anything, should be made president of the Tantrum-throwers Union.

Further, he doesn’t represent those who secretly hope to someday barbeque their office manager’s stuffed animal collection. Slater instead represents Americans’ snarling demand to be anointed by the media, to have our spastic fits rewarded with celebrity.

But worse than demonstrating how easy it is to disrupt an entire airport by pulling a fire alarm (which is essentially what the rapid deployment of a giant yellow inflatable emergency escape ladder says); and worse than potentially giving some old fat guy a heart attack or raising a big middle finger to your fellow crewmembers; worse even than becoming the poster-boy for false accusations; is an insult to all of the unemployed out there who desperately need the job that you so frivolously, narcissistically (drunkenly?) threw away.

You self-admiring piece of work, you! That smug, satisfied look on your face as you were rushed away from the cameras following your release from custody is enough to make worms straighten. And what inspired it is worse still: your cheap-thrill success at mimicking someone who actually has been victimized. I can’t imagine the excuse.