The editor-in-chief of far-left magazine Mother Jones is facing a storm of backlash after attempting to smear an Alaska Airlines flight attendant participating in “creeping Christian nationalism” for wishing passengers a “blessed” evening.
Clara Jeffery, who has been chief editor of the progressive publication since 2015, tagged the airline in a since-deleted X thread documenting her frustration with the employee:
“Creeping Christian nationalism alert: @AlaskaAir flight attendant just wished us a ‘blessed’ night as we landed in SFO (!) to our groans,” she wrote. “Other adjectives that would have sufficed: great, awesome, fabulous, amazing, fantastic.”
Jeffery also claimed that another passenger in her row said, “This ain’t Montgomery, sweetie” — seemingly referring to the Bible Belt city of Montgomery, Alabama.
When confronted over her anti-Christian bigotry by fellow left-winger Armand Domalewski, the Mother Jones editor claimed the word “blessed” was disrespectful:
“Eh. It’s a matter of respect for the audience before you,” Jeffery replied. “Respecting their space and norms and wishes. Dominant cultures always feel they have a right to enforce their norms and intents. And…way off @AlaskaAir’s brand.”
Instead of responding to the public shaming of one of their employees, Alaska Airlines quietly untagged its X account from the thread.
“How is an air flight attendant from Alaska offering you the rich lady from the richest place in America well wishes the dominating one in this situation?” asked journalist Zaid Jilani:
It did not take long for other X users to search through Jeffery’s tweets, finding that she herself frequently says “God bless” and “blessed” to others:
Just days before her meltdown over the word, Jeffery wrote, “Bless Gisèle Pelicot. Hero,” about the French woman who renounced her anonymity to expose her alleged rapists in an ongoing public trial.
In 2019, Jeffery even said that she was “blessed” on another flight because the seat next to her was empty:
“Is this Christian nationalism?” satirical parody page Dr. Richard Harambe asked.
Other X users pointed out that Jeffery’s words could be seen as anti-black, as Montgomery is majority black as well as Christian:
“I just want to point out that Montgomery, Alabama is 60% black,” said Atlantic contributor Tyler Austin Harper. “So it’s super fucking funny and progressive that the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones is shitting on a flight attendant for wishing her a blessed evening by offering ‘this ain’t Montgomery, sweetie’ as a witty quip.”
“@ClaraJeffery accidentally outed herself as a classist racist and is lying in order to backtrack,” another user said:
