The Politics of Public Transportation

A Modern Day Parable

About two years ago, I had an interesting encounter on the subway, which relates a lot to the current state of politics. A lot of global trends are just repeated micro-scenarios rewritten on the macro level - the whole “as above, so below” kind of thing - and that’s why I feel this encounter had a lot of relevance as to why Trump won his second term.

I was returning home from a night of karaoke organized by my friend Howie. Drinking is encouraged in these situations, which is why as a socially responsible person I took the T rather than driving. I was armed for two reasons: the first being that I have a crazy ex-wife who likes to stalk me, even to the point of driving to Western Massachusetts and camping out near my family’s place. The second is that Boston is a heavily left-wing city in a heavily left-wing state, and a lot of its residents might disapprove of my right-wing Q-anon activies. To be clear, I wasn’t carrying a huge weapon like an assault rifle: just a discreet little multipurpose sidearm that is useful for drones that get too close, off-leash dogs that get too aggressive on the hiking trail, and of course securing myself a good seat on the bus. It’s easily concealable, and I do have a concealed carry permit, so I wasn’t doing anything illegal.

After a few stops, two extremely drunk college girls got onboard the train. And when I say drunk, I mean drunk. One of them was falling asleep, and the other was clearly tipsy. A shady-looking latino guy (who looked like a pimp) quickly approached them, together with a latina woman who seemed slightly afraid of him (presumably the prostitute who was part of his stable). He introduced himself and from the parts of the conversation that I overheard, it sounded like the two women were getting off at Oak Grove (the last stop on the Orange Line). The latino man was (conveniently) getting off at Oak Grove, and he offered the two women a ride, which they refused.

Now here’s where things started to get very sketchy. Remember how I told you that one of the two drunk college girls was on the verge of passing out? She was lying down on the row of seats across from me, with her head on her friend’s lap. Anyway, the latino pimp started to “playfully” pinch her nose closed so that she couldn’t breathe. She would moan a little in her sleep and bat ineffectually at his hand which he would then remove, but then a minute later he would do the exact same thing again. As somebody who has a lot of experience with sociopathic narcissists, I easily recognized the motivation for this: he was testing boundaries. He wanted to see if either of the two white girls would challenge him and say “What the hell are you doing? Stop doing that,” or if they were too scared of seeming “racist” to call him out on his disturbing behavior. If they didn’t call him out, then he knew it would be safe to escalate. However, neither of the drunk college girls asserted their boundaries.

At this point, I decided to step in. “Do you need any help?” I asked the less drunk college girl. She told me they were fine. She sure didn’t seem fine, considering that a latino pimp was repeatedly asphyxiating her friend right in front of her, but we live in the strong proud #girlboss era where women don’t need help from any patronizing man, so I sat back down and let the scene continue. As expected, the man became increasingly pushy, insisting that he give the two women a ride back home, since they were getting off at the same stop, and his van was parked outside the station. I assume that his plan was to abduct them and enslave them as his newest prostitutes.

Normally I respect women’s right to choose their own path in life (no matter how dumb or suicidal that path is), but considering that these two ladies were drunk, I decided to give them another chance. “Are you sure you don’t need help?” I offered again. I saw her looking me over and sizing me up. I’m a white six foot tall bald man who's fairly muscular and looks rather intimidating, so I can understand women being a bit nervous around me. On the other hand, I was also the only male in this train car who wasn’t repeatedly suffocating her friend for giggles, so I feel like I should have been by far the more trustworthy choice in this scenario. “No, we’re fine,” the drunk college girl said, and sealed her fate. I chose to respect her stated wishes and sat back down again.

Now, some people might suggest that I acted wrongly in this situation. For example, I could have said “You’re not fine. This dude is repeatedly pinching your friends nose shut even though she doesn’t like it. How does that look fine to you?” I could have pulled out my gun and simply told the pimp and his prostitute to back off. But in the aftermath of the Daniel Penny trial, does that seem like it would be a good idea? Standing up to defend women in a heavily liberal city simply does not pay. Why should I endanger my freedom for two ungrateful women who would doubtless refer to me later at trial as “that white guy?” White liberal women just like these college students built a system that discourages men like me from helping them, so we should follow the incentives that they created for us. If those two women would rather be sold into sex slavery rather than open their mouths and ask a “oppressive” white man for help, then I respect their freedom to choose - even if their choice is self-destructive.

But after I got off the train at Malden Center - one stop before the end of the line - I thought of those college girls’ parents and had one final moment of compassion. If I had kids, how would I feel if they were in that situation and somebody left them like that? In a moment of infinite patience and mercy, I sighed and called the local police station, explaining to the desk sergeant that it seemed like a pimp was attempting to abduct two drunk college girls who would be getting off at the Oak Grove train stop. I suggested in very strong terms that the police should get there ASAP to intercept them.

Did the police get there in time to save those women? Or were the two drunk college girls abducted into sex slavery? Are they now addicted to drugs and turning tricks on the street corner for their latino pimp? I don’t know, and frankly I don’t care. I’m tired of white men being demonized every time we try to do the right thing, while minorities are continually given the benefit of the doubt even in cases of flagrant criminality. I’m tired of leftist women being ungrateful for our help and refusing to stand up for us politically even when we repeatedly protect them from the consequences of their own suicidal empathy. It is time for Leftists to face the consequences of their own actions: to take some accountability for the systems and incentives that they put into place, rather than expecting people like me to act against our own interests. In a saner era, I could have simply pistol-whipped the latino pimp a few times, forced him to leave the train, and been celebrated as a hero. But in the modern day, I would be demonized and called a “violent racist” simply for protecting two woman from sex slavery. I might even go to jail for it!

And if you don’t see how this relates to Donald Trump’s resounding victory in a second term, then let me spell it out for you more clearly: women who are being sex-trafficked by pimps don’t vote - but men like me do.