Left and Right leaning commentators found a rare moment of agreement after a liberal journalist made a comment that both sides are calling “petty.” Clara Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of the leftist journal Mother Jones complained about a flight attendant on a recent Alaskan Airlines flight wishing passengers a “blessed” night. “Creeping Christian nationalism alert,” wrote Jeffery in a now-deleted post. “@AlaskaAir flight attendant just wished us a ‘blessed’ night as we landed in SFO (!) to groans. Other adjectives that would have sufficed: great, awesome, fabulous, amazing, fantastic…” she lamented. “As my rowmate said, ‘this ain’t Montgomery, sweetie.’”

The post quickly went viral on X, receiving over 4 million impressions in just 12 hours. Marc Thiessen of the Washington Post snapped back at Jeffery, writing, “How sad and impoverished is your life that you’re offended by someone blessing you? Get a grip.” “From start to finish, this tweet is art,” wrote journalist Glenn Greenwald. “Put it in the encyclopedia under ‘affluent white coastal American liberalism’ and no other text will be required.” Liberal activist Armand Domalewski responded to the tweet writing, “Respectfully, I’m a pretty left leaning guy and I wish folks a blessed day fairly often. It’s just a nice thing to say.” Jeffrey stated she perceived it as a dominance move. “’Eh. It’s a matter of respect for the audience before you,” she wrote. “Respecting their space and norms and wishes. Dominant cultures always feel they have a right to enforce their norms and intents.” Domalewski noted, however, that as a practicing Catholic, he certainly did not believe that Christianity was the dominant culture in places like San Francisco.

Others were quick to point out that Jeffery has used some form of “blessed” in many of her own posts. “If  @ClaraJeffery thinks telling people to be blessed is creeping Christian Nationalism, then she may be one of its biggest proponents,” wrote the A9 Collective, a group of “antifascists” that focus on faith issues. The post featured a number of Jeffery’s own remarks, blessing nurses during the pandemic, Nancy Pelosi, and celebrities such as Diane Keaton. She had also used the phrase “God bless,” just a couple of days before her critical tweet. Several users remarked by asking Jeffery what she says when people sneeze or how she feels when being told “God bless you” after a sneeze. Another user pointed out that Jeffery was making other progressives look bad. “Editor of Mother Jones providing another great example of why normies hate progressives,” wrote the user, J Valentine. “Being ‘progressive’ is often just an excuse for being an insufferable jerk.”