We’ve all, at one point or another in our time on the internet, seen a post or comment so mean, shitty, or just bad that we can’t help but start clacking the keys and writing up a response. It turns out, even Nintendo of America’s president—Doug Bowser—can’t always resist the siren song of hopping into the comments when he sees something he strongly disagrees with.
As recently spotted and documented by PKLeor on the LinkedInLunatics subreddit, about a week ago Chad Rogers—a partner at public affairs agency Crestview Strategy—posted a small rant (and AI image) on LinkedIn about people using the seat in front of them to help them enter or exit a plane. He wanted to make it clear that people should never, ever, ever do that!
“As you make your way to your seat, rise from your seat, navigate the centre aisle, etc. a reminder you DO NOT HAVE THE right to touch other people’s seat backs,” Rogers posted.
“The seat [sic] on front of you is not there for you to stabilise or raise yourself (that is what an armrest is for). The seat you are in is yours, no other seat or seat back should be touched by you at any time. Thank you for respecting the miracle of flight.”
Normally, I’d not waste your time with the random rants that flood LinkedIn, but one of the people who responded to this weirdly aggressive take was none other than Nintendo of America’s president, Doug Bowser. And folks, he wasn’t having any of Rogers’ angry nonsense.
“Rather arrogant and entitled comment,” posted Bowser. “Some people may be challenged moving to thier [sic] seat (physical limitations, narrowness of seating areas, etc.). That said if a passenger should need to support themselves getting in/out of a seat they should be as gentle they physically can.”
Bowser then pulled out the classic comment poster tool of a little passive-aggressive “PS” at the end of his comment.
“PS. Where on your ticket purchase documentation are your ‘rights’ to the seat back or other ‘rules’ you speak of declared?”
At this point, if I was a wealthy executive, I’d probably realise the error of my ways and stop posting shit online. I’d go count all my money again or pay bills on time. Instead, Chad Rogers replied to Bowser’s comment.
“Entitled would be indicating you own everything not elucidated on a ticket on contract,” said Rogers. “Manners are clea, [sic] happy to help you out on them with the post. Seats are allocated by passenger, in fact printed on all boarding passes.”
Bowser responded for the last time in the thread with:
Manners are different from rights. I do see the arrogance is still prevalent however. Have yourself a good day.
That’s about as close to “Fuck you and fuck off” as an active executive at Nintendo will ever post online. In response, Chad deleted Bowser’s comments and other replies that he didn’t like. However, by checking Bowser’s profile on LinkedIn, you can still find evidence of the comment war.
A few days after Bowser’s reply, another user responded with “Well said Doug Bowser.” It got nine likes. Rogers replied simply “Who?” which got zero likes and is basically the biggest loser move you can pull in an online comment battle, especially when you previously replied to that person multiple times and then deleted his comments.
At the end of the day, it’s fun to see that rich dudes on LinkedIn act like I did when I was an active user of far too many internet forums back in the day. The more things change and all that.
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