As usual, when a meme says “Let me get this straight” they, in fact, do not get it straight. This meme makes it appear like this is somehow a response to shootings like Uvalde, but it’s not. And the well meaning program goes back decades.
▪️The Texas Legislature passed this bill in Sept 2021, well before the Uvalde shooting. It provides DNA and fingerprinting kits to school districts to distribute to parents. The kits are totally optional, no parent is required to use them.
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/pdf/SB02158F.pdf
▪️These kits from the Child ID Program were developed back in 1997, and more than 70 million have been distributed in North America. It began with kits given out at college and NFL football games, but has since expanded.
https://childidprogram.com/about-us/
▪️In fact, back in 1999 the Texas legislature passed a resolution supporting the program and outlined efforts offering every child in TX a kit. Other states as well as the US Congress have also passed resolutions praising the program.
https://journals.senate.texas.gov/sjrnl/76r/html/4-26.htm
▪️These kits are primarily used for missing children, although could be useful for other emergencies. The kid’s DNA isn’t sent to the government. Parents keep their child’s fingerprints/DNA at home in a secure envelope. If their child is ever missing, they then have it to give law enforcement.
▪️The whole thing is a non issue and seems to be a well meaning program unrelated to school shootings that somehow got turned into a political issue after media reports skewed its coverage and politicians like Gavin Newsome and Beto O’Rourke hyped it up.
So many of these right wing accounts are just whiners now, this is a diatribe about automatic sinks and towels, the horror! As I explained in a prior post, most of the newer terminals have great bathrooms, some now have completely private stalls and plenty of them. The worst and most crowded airport bathrooms are invariably found in aging terminals that are decades old. It’s a reminder that airports were usually drab and uncomfortable.
I think the heyday of the air hand-dryers was like 15-20 years ago, where often you couldn’t find real towels. Now you can at least usually get real paper towels in airport bathrooms. Remember those old cloth roller towels that would go in a loop and somehow “clean” themselves? Yuck! Public bathrooms have always been gross, it seems some are deliberately having selective memories.
Airport food and drinks were always expensive, but now practically everyone brings those huge cooler flasks with them and fills them up. So not sure what he means that ...
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
