Originally Posted by JakiChan

Exactly - so many people miss this part.

The First Amendment gives you a right to be an a-hole. It also gives me the right to call you an a-hole.

On a mailing list I run this comes up often. People complain when criticized for saying something stupid. They complain that they can say what they want - and they can. But folks get to say what they want in response.

So if one of the other passengers had told the OP to shut the F up then that would have been totally cool. The FA could have said it as well and while it's against policy it wouldn't have been illegal.