We tie our identities to this, and we become ambition-minded freaks as we advance within the industry. So proving that we are better than our peers addresses an existential dread that lives within many of us. The result: we rush to judge others without facts. We shrink from real issues like deep conflicts of interest in ERBs or mishap response if we sense a promotion is on the line.

We train ourselves to be awful starting with critiquing other pilots radiotelephoney all the way to YouTube channels run by knobs who have to wear their epaulettes on screen. At the end of our careers, with our identities still tied to this, we burn anybody and anything to protect our legacies.

This industry often brings out the worst in us. You have to work to maintain your humanity in any case, but it's especially important and difficult in and around aviation.

The good news is this can also bring out the best in us sometimes. We just aren't seeing that side of things here.