This Guy Suuuuuuucks

Dillon Cheverere8 years ago

The viral video of the day is of a guy named Adam Saleh (on the right in the above picture) and his buddy “Slim,” who were booted from an international Delta flight for, if you believe Adam’s account of what happened, simply “speaking Arabic.” According to him, he called his mother after boarding the plane and spoke to her for about 10 seconds on the phone, hung up, then continued speaking to his friend. All in Arabic.

He then claims that a woman sitting five rows in front of them became uncomfortable and asked them to speak English. This interaction, again, according to Adam, set off a chain reaction of heated emotions and raised voices that eventually concluded with the Delta staff escorting Adam and Slim off the plane for causing a disturbance.

The video is below. As you can see by the re-tweet count, it has absolutely exploded.

I’ve been following this story all day — reading comments to the video, takes from different publications, news coverage, etc. It’s been a pretty infuriating story to keep up with, not because I feel bad for Adam and Slim for getting unjustly kicked off a flight, or that I’m upset at the alleged racism and unfair Muslim stereotyping shown by the passengers and Delta staff.

It’s infuriating because this guy sucks. Because this guy is an asshole. Because this guy is millennial scum. Because this guy is fabricating a racist storyline and attempting to expose innocent people to gain exposure and promote his personal brand. Because this guy is exploiting perhaps the most sensitive sociological issue in the world today for his own personal gain, and at the expense of others.

Because this guy is a very well-known YouTube prankster who has numerous videos about Muslims on airplanes.

So what does a prankster do — with over 2.2 million YouTube subscribers and 320k Twitter followers — while being kicked off a flight for a disturbance he very intentionally caused? He whips out his phone and records it, of course. And he immediately posts it to Twitter.

And what might a YouTube prankster who gets paid from his YouTube views do immediately when he returns home? He makes another YouTube video, of course.

I wonder if his buddy Slim has a YouTube channel, too.

Yeah, we definitely needed a second reactionary video from Adam’s other YouTube prankster friend.

Now look, racism exists everywhere. I know this. You know this. Muslims are stereotyped, just as people of all ethnicities, religions, and cultures are. Society can be a real bitch sometimes. And I’m not even saying this type of shit doesn’t happen. A quick google search will yield multiple stories about TSA and airlines treating people unfairly based on appearance.

All I’m saying is that an occurrence this rare, happening to a YouTube star and prankster who SPECIALIZES in “look at me – I’m a Muslim on a plane” pranks, is absolutely not a crazy coincidence. This guy is lying scum.

Don’t take my word for it if you don’t want to. That’s fine. But let’s see what passengers aboard the flight have to say about the incident.

From CBS News:

But according to a Delta, Saleh sought to disrupt the cabin.

In statement to CBS News Delta said:

“Upon landing the crew was debriefed and multiple passenger statements collected. Based on the information collected to date, it appears the customers who were removed sought to disrupt the cabin with provocative behavior, including shouting. This type of conduct is not welcome on any Delta flight. While one, according to media reports, is a known prankster who was video recorded and encouraged by his traveling companion, what is paramount to Delta is the safety and comfort of our passengers and employees. It is clear these individuals sought to violate that priority.”

He didn’t get kicked off the plane for “speaking Arabic.” He got kicked off the plane for intentionally causing a scene about a very sensitive topic, and for being a complete asshole.

Adam Saleh, you suck..

[via CBS News]