Far-right YouTuber Sydney Watson has left many outraged after she demanded "reparations" from American Airlines for having to sit between two "obese" people on a recent flight.
Watson's YouTube channel focuses mostly on anti-feminism and a seemingly outright obsession with transgender people. But she's also dedicated plenty of space in her feed to mocking racial justice and decrying the fat acceptance movement.
Watson combined those last two for her rant about her recent flight, which went viral on Twitter and even elicited a response from the airline.
See her tweet below.
WARNING: fatphobic language
Watson began her thread by saying:
"I am currently - literally - WEDGED between two OBESE people on my flight."
"This is absolutely NOT acceptable or okay."
"If fat people want to be fat, fine. But it is something else entirely when I'm stuck between you, with your arm rolls on my body, for 3 hours."
Of course, an easy fix for this problem is to simply pay the extra money to request a window or aisle seat when booking your flight.
But in fairness, sometimes we have to fly last-minute, and the already shocking dearth of personal space on planes, let alone a middle seat, is vexing to say the least.
But Watson's rant seemed to be more about hating fat people than hating planes, mainly because at no point did she complain about planes' tight quarters in general.
She opted instead to just hurl insults at overweight people.
Going on to say "I don't care if this is mean," Watson then set about attacking one of her pet obsessions on her YouTube channel, the notion of fat acceptance.
She tweeted:
"I'm sick of acting like fatness to this extent is normal. Let me assure you, it is not."
What credentials does Watson have to make such a claim? None that we could find—though she refers to herself as "Dr. Sydney Watson," we were unable to find any evidence she even is a doctor, let alone what kind of doctor she might be.
That didn't stop her from offering her mean-spirited advice to fat people anyway.
If you need a seat belt extender, you are TOO FAT TO BE ON A PLANE.
Buy two seats or don't fly.
— Dr. Sydney Watson (@SydneyLWatson) October 10, 2022
As you might guess, Watson's Twitter thread sparked outrage among decent human beings and votes of support from conservatives.
Emphatically not on her side, however?
American Airlines, who responded to her thread thusly:
The airline wrote:
"Our passengers come in all different sizes and shapes. We're sorry you were uncomfortable on your flight."
Pretty sure that's corporate PR speak for "pound sand, jag-off."
Of course, Watson wasn't about to take the backlash sitting down.
Instead, she took the opportunity to add her other expertise—mocking racial justice—to the discourse by doubling down and demanding "reparations."
She tweeted:
"So we are clear -"
"I stand by everything I said..."
"I'd like some reparations pls."
If you were looking for a perfect encapsulation of right-wing ideology, you'd be hard pressed to find a better one than a white woman comparing being inconvenienced for a few hours on a plane to the 400-plus years of slavery, economic marginalization and racist violence to which Black people in America have been subjected.
Her defiance did very little to tamp down the dragging she got on Twitter.
Luckily, American conservatism has an easy solution for Watson, since she's Australian.
If she has a problem with America's fat people she can always just leave and "go back where she came from," like right-wingers always tell anyone else who complains about America.
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