On Friday evening, I took the G train from Metropolitan Av to get to Astoria. I had decided to ride until 21st St instead of the last stop at Court Sq, because that last stop would be too far east. Riding north three stops and then biking the final 10-15 minutes to Astoria seemed a better option than four stops on the L back to a Union Sq transfer to the Uptown 4, 5, or 6, followed by another transfer to the 7 at GCT and another three stops back to the same Court Sq the G ends at. Even taking the 6 past GCT to an E or F transfer at Lexington would pop me out at Court Sq-23rd St, which didn’t seem any better for the lost transfer and travel time.
Bear with me—there’s a reason I’m telling you all this.
As I got off in LIC, a woman next to me with her partner was wearing a Hot Girls for Zohran shirt. I pointed at my rose pin, said to her, “dope shirt,” and then we fist bumped as I got off. There are now so many DSA members and/or Zohran supporters across the City, it is no longer unusual to have an interaction like this out in the wild.
I emerged to the bustle of LIC and a beautiful evening where the sun was still out with the temperature cooling by the minute. As I arrived at my Citibike, I pressed send on a post to X about the interaction, put my phone away, and biked up to Astoria.
Saying I “got off the G to Astoria” made sense to me because Astoria was my final destination and a quick bike ride after getting off the train felt like a tiny semantic. I never said I got off the G IN Astoria, I said I got off the G TO Astoria.
My inner wordsmith didn’t like the clunkiness of “getting off the G to get to Astoria” or “getting off the G in LIC to get to Astoria.” Figuring nobody would care much about such a semantic, I simply posted and went about my day.
Little did I know the firestorm to come. Let’s break down the responses below.
Regular Comradely Responses
For around the first 18 hours, most of the responses were just favorites and a similar story or two from fellow comrades. Many people understood exactly what I meant, so I continued to not think too much of it. This is how it remained until 2pm Saturday afternoon.
The Interaction was a Lie
Despite the initial good vibes, one of the very first responses was from a young, centrist Democrat named Paolo Cremidis who accused me of making up the story. It now appears he deleted his original comment, but he ended up being followed by many others who simply refused to believe there are enough supporters of NYC’s historically popular DSA Mayor for us to bump into each other. It’s all some sort of mass conspiracy! If Paolo or these others are looking for friends of a shared mind, I’d recommend Mariama James.
Straight-Up Meanness
As the post got bigger, some fell back on classic derogatory attacks.
Some people are so incensed by our victorious joy, they can’t even stand to simply see me in my zone.
TRANSPLANT Doesn’t Know Where the Trains Go
It took some time for this one to really give the story legs, but more responses than I ever would have imagined painted me as a clueless transplant because the G doesn’t technically go all the way to Astoria, despite the fact I literally said “Just got off TO Astoria” not “Just got off IN Astoria.”
Despite my initial comments to people that getting off and biking the rest of the way is semantic to me, this attack spread like wildfire. It didn’t seem to matter that it was a disingenuous read of the situation.
Suddenly, I realized a sobering truth: it was too late. The cat was out of the bag and this? This was a good ol’ fashioned hate parade. By 2pm Saturday, my Twitter was an explosion of notifications.
These Republicans and Centrist Dems didn’t need an actual error to run wild with the concept of a transplant appearing uninformed. They only needed the perception of an error, bad faith or no. And something about this particular issue was like an addictive substance for New York Centrist Dems and Republicans, who have been desperately seeking something, anything to downplay or distract from getting washed in recent elections by DSA since Donald Trump was re-elected due to a decade of Centrist folly.
Realizing there was nothing left to do, I decided to kick it and set out to enjoy my Saturday, which was dope.
The Future
So what is all this actually about, anyway? Everyone reading this knows the answer: the balance of political power in New York is permanently shifting towards DSA. An entire class of centrist consultants, centrist political staff, and various historically powerful groups of centrist stakeholders are terrified it is the end of their access to the cushy political jobs and access to the steer the direction of New York politics that have allowed them to bend society toward the unsustainable future of a Capitalism that runs wild as we all trust the gods and goddesses of the free market to straighten it all out.
Nobody has made this more strikingly clear than Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and the Brooklyn Dems.
This was not the first flash in the pan for the Left and it won’t be the last. Whether it’s the NYPD being hit with some snowballs, Little Italy not being included on the tourism map, or Lulu Lenin daring to be a class traitor, these flashes in the pan will keep popping up and being forgotten as the news cycle moves on. And that’s all they’ll be: temporary blips as DSA organizes permanent power.
While my post consumed the attention of all the DSA haters in the following 36 hours, I made it to my destination in Astoria. Many DSA members were on-site for a trash cleanup that doubled as a visibility event for the Pop the Bubble Campaign aiming to stop the Privatization of the Tennis Courts at Astoria Park.Trash was being cleaned up, awareness of the campaign was being spread, and the public watched as DSA strove for the public good.
A few hours later, I was off to a nighttime houseparty near Brooklyn Borough Hall hosted by a DSA comrade. It was attended by many of my fellow DSA members where we all made new connections, formed personal bonds, and strategized for the future.
This is the reality driving the desperation behind each of the flashes in the pan. We are a durable force. Multiple generations now committed to this project for the long term, not only election cycle or two. This is more than showing up to a Democratic club meeting once a month. It is making the drive for a better society part of our everyday lives.
As the Centrist opposition reaches for the next flash in the pan to slow us down, we will keep living the video below. With many more to come.