There was something deeply ugly about Tommy Tuberville's speech on the floor of the United States Senate this week.
It wasn't simply that the Alabama Republican said something bizarre.
It wasn't even that a sitting United States senator warned Americans that their commercial airline pilot might secretly be a furry.
It was the contempt running through the entire speech.
For roughly 20 minutes, Tuberville stood on the Senate floor describing Americans who are different from him as mentally ill, dangerous, deranged and potentially violent.
And when transgender people apparently weren't enough of a target, he found another group to frighten people about.
Furries.
Yes. Furries.
Apparently Your Pilot's Hobby Is Now a National Emergency
Tuberville told the Senate that “many airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community.”
Then came the warning.
“Lord help us,” Tuberville said. “It's terrifying when you think about this.”
Why exactly should Americans be terrified?
Tuberville didn't identify an aviation accident caused by a furry.
He didn't identify an FAA investigation into furries.
He didn't produce evidence that people involved in the furry community are somehow incapable of safely flying airplanes, serving passengers or directing air traffic.
Instead, Tuberville suggested that when you board an airplane, your pilot could have what he called a “deranged fetish” involving dressing like an animal.
That's it.
That's apparently the terrifying threat.
And there is a fairly significant problem with his accusation: being a furry doesn't inherently mean having a sexual fetish.
The furry community is a fandom centered around anthropomorphic animal characters. Some people create artwork. Some write stories. Some participate online. Some create fictional animal personas. Some wear elaborate costumes.
And some undoubtedly have jobs.
Perhaps even jobs flying airplanes.
None of that tells us whether someone can safely operate a Boeing 737.
Tuberville offered no evidence that it does.
The Cruelty Wasn't an Accident
The furry comments would be easy to dismiss as another ridiculous political soundbite if they hadn't occurred during a much darker speech.
Tuberville's larger target was transgender Americans.
He portrayed transgender people as mentally ill and connected them broadly with violence. He talked about parents, doctors and children. He suggested physicians providing gender-transition care should face criminal consequences.
Then he called for America to “bring back mental institutions as a normal part of our society.”
Think about what is happening here.
These aren't abstractions.
These are people.
They're someone's child.
Someone's brother.
Someone's sister.
Someone's coworker.
Someone sitting quietly in the seat next to you on an airplane.
And the message coming from a United States senator is that Americans should be frightened of them.
Politics Needs an Enemy
There is a recognizable pattern to this kind of politics.
Find a relatively small group of people most Americans don't know much about.
Describe them as strange.
Connect them with something frightening.
Suggest they're dangerous.
Then tell everyone you're protecting them.
The evidence becomes almost irrelevant because fear is the point.
Tuberville didn't need to demonstrate that furry pilots were crashing airplanes.
He simply needed people listening to imagine something unfamiliar and think:
That's weird.
Then:
That's disturbing.
And finally:
Maybe I should be afraid of those people.
That is how prejudice is manufactured.
Imagine Applying This Standard to Everyone Else
Suppose your airline pilot spends weekends dressed as a Civil War reenactor.
Would you be terrified?
Suppose your air traffic controller attends Star Trek conventions dressed as a Klingon.
Would airplanes suddenly start falling from the sky?
Suppose your flight attendant dresses like an elf every year at a Renaissance festival.
Does that make the emergency exits stop working?
Of course not.
We judge aviation professionals by whether they're qualified to do their jobs.
Pilots undergo extensive training, certification and medical requirements. Air traffic controllers undergo specialized training and evaluations. Flight attendants receive mandatory safety training.
Whether one of those people has an unusual hobby on Saturday afternoon tells you essentially nothing about whether that person can safely perform a professional job on Monday morning.
This Is What Makes the Speech So Disturbing
The strangest part of Tuberville's speech wasn't the furries.
It was the apparent need to continually identify groups of Americans as threats.
Transgender people.
Parents supporting transgender children.
Doctors providing medical care.
People participating in furry culture.
Even hypothetical airline pilots whose private hobbies Tuberville apparently finds objectionable.
Different people become characters in the same story:
They're strange. They're dangerous. Be afraid.
There was very little curiosity in Tuberville's speech about who these people actually are.
There was certainly very little compassion.
Instead there was ridicule, fear and condemnation.
And coming from the floor of the United States Senate, that matters.
There Are Real Problems in America
Americans are dealing with housing costs.
Healthcare costs.
Food prices.
Infrastructure.
Airline delays.
Aviation staffing.
National debt.
Wars overseas.
Families struggling to pay their bills.
The United States Senate has no shortage of serious issues demanding attention.
Yet Tommy Tuberville used part of his time on the Senate floor warning Americans that the person flying their airplane might enjoy dressing like an animal.
Maybe the question shouldn't be whether there are furries flying airplanes.
Maybe the question should be why a United States senator thinks Americans need another group of people to fear.
Because somewhere in America there probably is a pilot who happens to be a furry.
And if that pilot is properly trained, medically qualified, professionally certified and safely gets 180 passengers from Sacramento to Chicago, there is a very simple response to that revelation:
Who cares?