how boeing passengers live to tell the tale on tiktok and twitter
three options... you make it, you crash, or you go viral for surviving :)
Life is giving Final Destination with all the insanity happening with Boeing. Doesn’t it make you miss when your feed was just influencers pushing the latest teeth whitening strips? Instead, we’re stuck with real life content of people sitting in silence next to a plane door that fell off mid flight, tires plummeting from the sky onto unsuspecting cars, and planes burning in the Miami skyline before GTA 6 even comes out… These pedestrian uploaded videos get fed into the all mighty algorithm and then are regurgitated onto our FYPs as dystopian reality TV. But it’s literally our lives. Lives that are beholden to global enterprises, travel, and capitalism.
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We seem to be living in a post-9/11 horror simulation, turning near brushes with death broadcasted to the masses into sharable, viral content for our amusement as a way to find solace in circumstances that are so far out of plebeian control.
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This humor, as the go-to reaction on social, can perhaps be attributed to the fact that the latest Boeing plane breakdowns have SOMEHOW avoided becoming casualties. The cars that the plane tire landed on happened to fall into a rental car lot. Nobody was sitting next to the door on the Alaskan flight when it flew off. The burning plane was a cargo one that was able to land safely. Thank GOD, but that’s not saying much either?!
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Let’s delve into some of the most interesting Boeing discourse manifestations that are unfolding in the digital realm:
RIP John Barnett: If you don’t know who that is, he was the whistleblower for Boeing. He came forward in 2019, exposing the obscene quality issues at Boeing that he had seen during his time with the company for over 30 years. The day he was set to continue his deposition against the airplane manufacturer, he was found dead inside his car in front of a Holiday Inn, with a bullet to his head.
Now, TikTok comments and Tweets organically flood in, saying, “John Barnett did not kill himself.” Think of it as the 2.0 “Epstein did not kill himself” user behavior to tell the overlords that we are not fooled by their evil villain cover ups that seem straight out of a deep espionage film plot. The public’s trust in higher powers and brands is rapidly declining. Some call it a conspiracy theory, but the pattern of commenting remains intriguing and powerful, and it is a way to honor John Barnett’s courage to speak his truth.
How to videos: We’ve seen tips and tricks on how to get the perfect cat eye eyeliner, and now TikTok has tips and trick-styled videos on how to avoid flying on a Boeing plane so you can prevent a spontaneous malfunction from happening to you! From oil leaking from your aircraft to loose bolts as your window seat view to crashing and dying (rest in peace to the 346 passengers on the 2018 Indonesia and the 2019 Ethiopia 737 Max flights, and yes, Boeing was found responsible.)
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also lololol at Kayak commenting on that video.🫢 Rooting for Spirit: In probably the most unexpected twist of events…. People are actually defending Spirit Airlines?!?!?!?!? True story, it’s since that airline uses Air Bus planes. Spirit Airlines mockery is an evergreen meme, but seeing people come to its defense was not on my 2024 bingo card…
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Twitter understanding the assignment: Of course, Twitter has made for the best comedy bits that translate into the memes we see circulating like wildfire. Including this iconic one that has been circulating all over since 3/15/24:
Some other knee slappers…
It’s worth noting, based on a Huffington Post article titled “No, Boeing Issues Aren't Actually On The Rise This Year, NTSB Data Shows,” the number of Boeing incidents isn’t higher this year than others. (Are we supposed to feel relieved by this fact???) But what this content discourse can really show us is how the algorithm serves up videos from regular people, capturing events in real-time in a way we’ve never been able to before, sharing them on a platform that doesn't hold back, which allows us to see a world that we had blind spots to till now. How does this power to instantly share, tweet, and amplify these incidents shape our perception of reality? And what’s next for us? Well, definitely not booking a flight on a Boeing, that's for sure…