The Consumerist brings us a story about a mother and child booted off a Continental flight because the 2 year old kept saying “bye, bye plane” and wouldn’t stop upon demand of the flight attendant.  Not screaming or crying, just speaking.  The flight attendant first offered to drug the child with a “baby Benadryl,” but when Mom rejected the idea that her son, Garron, be drugged to please the flight attendant, the plane returned to the gate to eliminate a “passenger disturbance.”  Of course, all of this happened following an 11 hour delay.

The incident itself is disturbing, on a number of levels.  Did the words of this child suggest “terrorism”, showing yet another use of our war on terror to control an annoying population?  Or was it nothing more than a kid who was heard as well as seen that just pissed off an official woman?  Hard to say which from the story, but this is just the beginning of the story.

One of the most important aspects of the Consumerist is their comments following the story.  What it reveals about people is like voir dire on steroids (or sometimes juror Benadryl).  You would think that of the 214 comments (as of this writing), there would be expressions of outrage at this treatment of a trial, and particularly at the suggestion that drugging children is the corporate answer to child-rearing.  No, no.  Not at all.

The vast majority of comments applaud the Continental move.  No, applaud is not a strong enough word.  They cheer on Continental for finally doing something to stop this bain of all fliers’ existence: children.  With a level of anger and revulsion, person after person spews their personal hatred toward a young human being who may possibly disturb them.  Aye, there’s the rub.  They hate the fact that their comfort, quiet and solitude is disturbed.  And they demand that extreme action be taken against anything, and anyone, who might conceivable do so.

Consider the implications of this selfishness toward anyone who brings even the mildest discomfort to their lives.  Drug them.  Throw them off the plane.  Ban them from their lives!  They truly couldn’t care less what happens to a child, as long as the end result is that their personal comfort prevails. 

Before you think otherwise, I fly and recognize that kids (and more than a few adults) can be annoying on planes.  I have my issues sitting next to a crying baby.  Then again, I have my issues sitting next to a morbidly obese adult, who spills over into my space.  But would I have them tossed from the plane.  No, that’s way over the line.  But for the slightest measure of self-control, I sense that many of the Consumerist commenters would have supported tossing the kids from the plane in flight if it meant that they could take a nap or get an open seat next to them.

This is not only crazy, but quite scary.  These are our jurors.  As we do our Clarence Darrow thing, and offer a heartfelt plea for justice and sanity in an insane world, consider that the people we are speaking to would be just as inclined to put our minor drug dealer to death as convict him if it would bring an iota of greater comfort to their personal lives. 

While it is impossible to pinpoint the demographics, the following appears pretty clear:

1.  They are computer users.
2.  They read blogs.
3.  They are inclined to register to post comments on blogs.
4.  They are inclined to post comments on blogs.
5.  They are employed.
6.  They are employed in positions that require airplane travel.
7.  They are employed in white collar positions.
8.  They are high school graduates.
9.  They are college graduates.
10.  They look like regular people.

From the writing and tone, it would appear that these are largely males in lower to middle range corporate positions.  And they are angry and selfish, tired of putting up with things that bother them and perfectly willing to allow, if not cause, others to suffer for their convenience. 

The fact that these potential jurors, and otherwise regular guys, are so happy to have this happen means a lot for those of us who have to guess at who will resort to sanity and reason, and who will have no concern for the harm they cause others.  This was a child, and still they didn’t care.  How much sympathy can we expect of them for an adult?