"Lena Dunham Epitomizes Our Self-Enforcing Police State"

Via Instapundit:  Lena Dunham had a delayed flight and was walking through the airport when she overheard two American Airlines employees having an unapproved private conversation about transgender children. So she did what you naturally do when you are a well-known “liberal” who believes in free speech and distrusts big corporations: she ratted them out to their employer on Twitter.

What took this from being merely bullying and repressive to being creepy and totalitarian in style is that Dunham didn’t just make a general complaint. She then posted what looks like direct messages or text message between her and the American Airlines account, in which she enthusiastically provides detailed information about exactly where the conversation took place.

Saying “I overheard a conversation” but giving no specifics might prompt American Airlines to send out a general notice to its employees to watch what they say while in the terminal—which is a little unsettling in itself. But giving specific information only has one purpose: to help the airline locate, identify, and punish these specific employees for holding politically incorrect views.

It’s the hashtag #acrossfromthewinebar that sent chills down my spine. Dunham is acting like an informant working for a totalitarian police state—but boastfully, in public, on social media. With a hashtag.

Undoubtedly, someone will point out that this isn’t really totalitarianism because these are all voluntary actions by private citizens and organizations, not the government. Dunham isn’t a paid stooge of the police, but a citizen acting on her own initiative. American Airlines isn’t doing this because the government told them to, but because they’re terrified of bad press. (Which they are still going to get, but from the other side.)

Yet somehow this makes it all worse, because it implies we are being trained to internalize the ethos of the police state—and to enact it voluntarily, on our own initiative, without having to be coerced. We’re building a self-enforcing police state. (Link to more)

UPDATE: “American Airlines ‘unable to substantiate’ Lena Dunham’s allegations of transphobic employees at NYC airport,” Fox News reports:

It’s unclear if American was able to identify where the conversation allegedly occurred, but Dunham’s explanation that it was between the arrivals area and Gate B30 would place her at JFK’s Terminal 4. ABC News reported that Dunham’s Instagram story appeared to show her flying on Delta Air Lines, which does in fact operate out of Terminal 4. American Airlines, meanwhile, operates out of JFK’s Terminal 8.