Turns Out the Internet Isn’t So Divided on That Viral In-Flight Video
Two American Airlines passengers fought over a reclined seat — then the internet went nuts. But now that the dust has settled, Ranker data says that most people agree about who was in the wrong.
Photo: Twitter
Remember the viral video recorded by an American Airlines passenger that “divided the internet” last week? It turns out that, when it comes to the etiquette of reclining airplane seats, the internet isn’t so divided after all!
The video was recorded by a woman who chose to recline her seat all the way back during a flight from Charlotte to New Orleans. The man sitting behind her was so frustrated by this decision that he started rocking her headrest back repeatedly with his fist, hoping to encourage her to reconsider and bring her seat back to its upright and locked position.
Whether it’s defending the man who just wanted his legroom, supporting the woman who just didn’t want her head punched, or bemoaning the sad state of affairs that allowed such a situation to take place, there’s a take on this video out there just for you.
But while plenty of outlets have collected many different tweets that responded to the incident, Ranker let readers vote on the tweets that came closest to representing their own beliefs on the subject. After reviewing the results of our survey, it turns out people have plenty of differing opinions about this video, but that doesn’t mean they disagree about which opinion is best.
the simple solution for two normal adults would be:
— Jordan Lancaster (@jordylancaster) February 13, 2020
“hey, my seat doesn’t recline and so i don’t have any space here when you recline yours. would you mind moving it up?”
“sure, no problem”
Far and away the most popular tweet among our readers was this highly reasonable take from @jordylancaster: just talk it over like adults before staging a highly public temper tantrum! This tweet was voted up by over 1,200 people and voted down by fewer than 200 readers, by far the strongest positive ratio of upvotes to downvotes of all the tweets on the list.
Internet controversy thrives on the presumption that everything is black-and-white — for example, you either thought “The Dress” was black and blue, or you thought it was gold and white. But when given the opportunity, it seems most people would like to at least try negotiating some kind of middle ground before coming down hard on one opinion. That being said, once a friendly discussion is out of the question…
But why is it her fault he booked a crappy seat? And what kind of sane adult punches someone's seat?
— Chris P. Bacon (@Clay_57) February 12, 2020
The next four tweets on the list all blame the guy punching the headrest ahead of him. We all may have our own opinions on how annoying it is when the person ahead of us reclines, but the internet seems to have reached a unanimous decision on whether or not punching is a good remedy for the situation. The tweets ranked at number two, three, four, and five on this list all have well over four times more upvotes than downvotes, which leaves little room for doubt regarding who’s in the wrong here. There’s a steep drop-off at number six with a tweet from @LevineJonathan, which has less than a 3:1 upvote-to-downvote ratio.
The airlines are at fault for forcing human beings into these depraved Lord of the Flies type situations
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 13, 2020