Trigger warning for RJS: you may not want to read past this point.

In my experience, it seems like most of the people I fly with hold attitudes similar to this. It’s the airline pilot manifestation of trickle-down economics: the belief that if I do everything I can to “empower” the corporation to maximize profits, including foregoing pay and benefits, then that will result in me being better off in the long run. The very prevalent arguments warning against “choking the golden goose” are an example of this. So are the “squozen balloon” theorists who argue that advocating for better is pointless because the pie is only so big: a gain in one place equals a loss in another. Then there’s the equally defeatist and damaging views of those who are convinced the RLA is stacked against us: they claim we’ll never achieve anything meaningful because the law favors corporations. Though if you ask them to explain in basic terms how the RLA works they can’t manage to string together anything intelligible. Instead, they default to parroting recollected gibberish they heard somewhere from someone. It’s like Q-Anon thinking applied to the airline pilot career. It is what it is and will always be.