Over the past week, airplanes made by Boeing have been involved in numerous incidents, including midair emergencies, leaking hydraulic fluid, a wheel falling off a plane as it took off, pilots losing control of the plane mid-journey, and a plane plummeting suddenly and injuring 50 people. As a result, right-wing influencers and far–right extremists are once again spreading the conspiracy that Boeing’s problems are all due to the airplane manufacturer’s supposed embrace of diversity.
But this time around, they are going even further: Some are even claiming that the accidents are happening intentionally, and that Boeing is failing on purpose as part of a global conspiracy to bring down western civilization and promote communism and countries like China.
These claims began earlier this year after a part of a Boeing-built Alaska Airlines plane blew off during a flight. Far-right figures claimed that airlines were now more dangerous not because of faults with the production process, but because they forced diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) policies which, conspiracists claimed without any proof, resulted in putting unqualified flight crew in the cockpit. The same far-right figures are now claiming that Boeing’s support of environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies and DEI have led to plummeting standards in the manufacturing process.
“Boeing…could be deliberately committing suicide as an organization,” James Lindsay, an anti-LGBTQ extremist who spreads conspiracy theories about communism taking over the world, said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast released on Thursday. “It’s cutting corners, it’s locked in by this ESG/DEI stuff.”
“Isn’t United run by a drag queen?” Rogan asked on the podcast.
Lindsay went on to explain that a new Chinese plane called the Comac C919, which is virtually identical to the Boeing 737, was posed to be introduced as a replacement for the US-made plane. “So maybe you kill Boeing and you allow American manufacturing of high quality aircraft to fall and then the Chinese competitor is now the thing on the market that doesn’t have this bad wrap sheet and this risk factor maybe it’s big dirty international business that’s actually happening,” Lindsay said.
The conspiracist also claimed, without proof, that executives at Boeing were allowing these accidents to happen in order to increase their own bonuses, awarded for implementing ESG policies.
On his own podcast on Thursday night, Donald Trump Jr. claimed that Boeing’s apparent demise as a result of diversity was a symbol of a broader collapse of western civilization.
“This is American decline,” Trump Jr. said. “This is happening across our country. This is because of ridiculous policies, stupidity, DEI and everything. This is what’s happening to America in a broad spectrum way.”
Boeing said that it was gathering more information about the incidents that took place over the last week, and has also repeatedly said that it was working to cooperate with a Department of Justice criminal investigation into the Alaska Airlines blowout. Additionally, the company’s latest diversity report, covering 2020 to 2022, shows that the company has not yet met the DEI goals it set for itself in relation to hiring women and Black people.