Full disclosure: I don't fly routinely. If I had to guess, I'd say I've flown on a plane 15-20 times in my life. So there may be differing perspectives here from people that fly only once in a while (me), and people that fly routinely for work.
That said, even with my limited flying experience, I know the 'recline/don't recline' debate is a touchy subject. Do you recline your seat, do you not, do you do it right away when you sit down, do you wait for half an hour, there are a lot of dynamics in play.
So what we have here, is a woman who has decided to recline her seat, and a dude sitting behind her who is in the last row, and thus not able to recline his chair. That adds a different element. Generally speaking, once the first person reclines, that sets the tone for everyone behind them. It's like dominoes. One person reclines, then the next person can recline and essentially point to that person and say their hands were tied if the person behind them complains. Then that person reclines and on and on it goes. But that logic doesn't apply here, because this gentleman has no recourse to be able to recline himself.
Here's where I stand on reclining on airplanes: I don't do it. It probably stems from my desperate, crippling need to be liked by everyone, but I just can't bring myself to inconvenience someone else with a voluntary action to facilitate my own comfort. Some would call me a hero, I'm not here to make those designations, if you want to call me a hero, fine, I won't stop you, but I won't do it myself. But I never recline, even if the person in front of me does and is sitting in my lap like I'm Santa Claus.
That said, I know people (*cough* Lindsey *cough*) that not only recline, they recline the instant they get to their seat. Right away, no hesitation, staking claim to that space. The argument being, 'if they don't want me to recline, don't make it an option on my chair.' Or, 'if they don't like it, then they can recline themselves to gain that space back.' While this is something I would never do, I have to say, I respect the move. It's a power move and a half. I'm envious of it, but would never be bold enough to execute it myself.
So those are the lines being drawn in the sand when it comes to reaction to this video. If you recline, and think everyone should, you side with the woman. If you don't recline, you may find yourself aligned with the guy. I will say this, I think he probably takes it a little too far. If you're upset that the person in front of you reclined their seat, just let out several irritated, heavy sighs, and casually bump your knees into their back every few minutes like a normal person. There's no need to escalate it to punching a headrest incessantly. But my guess is that the non-recliners have dreamed of doing this to recliners, so this man may be living their dream.
Conclusion: Flying, and everything about it, sucks.
PS: If this isn't an episode for the, 'Modern Seinfeld,' Twitter handle, I don't know what is. I can practically hear Costanza saying this to the woman who reclined:
