One of the great things about Twitter is the way its brevity and immediacy encourage really stupid people to say really stupid things in a really stupid and concise manner… which I suppose doesn’t do much to further public discourse, but does provide a gold mine of material to people like me who enjoy making fun of really stupid people. Like, for example, self-described “recovering political operative” and former RNC Chief Digital Strategist Todd Herman.

For some unexplained reason, Herman found himself riding Sound Transit’s Link Light Rail the other night, and immediately started tweeting the glaring flaws in the system that only he had the intellectual capacity and rigor to recognize.

toddeherman Jan 3, 6:00pm
What makes sense to #Seattle “light-rail” dreamers? No ticket gates to force purchase, union security guards on ALL trains to check 4 tix

toddeherman Jan 3, 6:08pm
@DarylNorthrop 1. Allows claim of higher ridership, 2. Employs union labor 3. Enables selective enforcment (poor areas not checked)

toddeherman Jan 3, 6:14pm
@DarylNorthrop I would hire you to do that. I bet your train wouldn’t stop at stop lights. My first & hopefully last Lunk Light Rail ride.

toddeherman Jan 3, 6:17pm
#Seattle #Link Light Rail Scam: Selective enforecement of fair requirements. Certain neighborhoods allowed free ride.

Hear that? Herman takes one ride on Link, and based on this extensive research, he brilliantly deduces that Sound Transit does not enforce fares in poor (i.e., non-white) neighborhoods. Ohmigod… he’s figured out our liberal scam!

The next day Sound Transit attempts to explain, but clever Herman, he’s not buying it:

SoundTransit: 9:03am, Jan 04
@toddeherman Nobody gets a free ride on #Link. Enforcement checks everybody on the train.

toddeherman 5:45pm
@SoundTransit That is demonstrably un-true. Last night all guards exited at Stadium & remained off the train through, International blvd.

SoundTransit 6:06pm
@toddeherman Yep. Fare enforcement officers get on and off trains all along alignment. Never know when you’ll be checked.

toddeherman 7:47pm
RT @SoundTransit: SoundTransit uses a “proof of payment” system on #Linklightrail \False. Security exited train, gone for 6 stops last nite

SoundTransit 7:55pm
@toddeherman Here’s how it works. Fare checkers get on train car, check all passengers, get off. Repeat on different car.

toddeherman 8:21pm
@SoundTransit Perhaps that’s how it’s supposed to work. No fares checked between stadium \ Int’nl blvd last night. Shall I video next time?

(Sigh.)

Eventually, the folks at Seattle Transit Blog jump into the exchange, and Herman reluctantly accepts their explanation that fare checks are intentionally random, and that once on the train, officers do indeed check all passengers, regardless of race, creed or income level.

Of course, this isn’t Herman’s first brush with really stupid impulsive tweeting. Herman (who apparently made his fortune and reputation at Microsoft due to hard work innovative thinking intellectual prowess timing) is perhaps best known for being forced out of the RNC after tweeting a link claiming President Barack Obama is a Muslim.

So maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this whole exchange, as really stupid and impulsive as it was, can further public discourse… at least in the sense that it clearly illustrates the desperately stupid level to which our public discourse so often sinks at the hands of mean-spirited, race-baiting propagandists like Todd Herman.

For in sowing these really stupid lies throughout Twitter and the rest of the Internet, Herman isn’t being nearly as really stupid as he first appears. The RNC may not have appreciated the bad publicity Herman brought it, but they sure do love the fact that 20 percent of Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim. And perpetuating lies like that is what seeding Twitter and the rest of the Internet with really stupid tweets like Herman’s is all about.

24 replies on “Local GOP Operative Todd Hermann Puts the Twit Into Twitter”

  2. Every single ride I’ve taken on LLR has featured at least one poor person, usually homeless, being taken off the train for non-payment. Even in poor areas. He’s simply wrong on the facts, in addition to be being daft as a brush.

  3. Fnarf @2,

    The irony is, the entire Link line runs through relatively “poor” neighborhoods, with the exception, perhaps, of the downtown tunnel, where Sound Transit officers do not ride the train, because that’s Metro jurisdiction.

    Personally, I’ve seen fare inspectors get on or off at every stop between Othello and Stadium, and my fare is checked maybe one out of five times I ride, which I’d say is surprisingly high.

  4. Quick unrelated stupid question: *IS* the train part of the ride free usage in the tunnel itself, i.e. hopping it from Westlake to the ID?

  6. 1) “gates” don’t work. People hop them. Has he never been to NYC?
    2) validated tickets and ticket checks are the norm for trains worldwide. Has he never been to Europe?
    3) the ultimate free ride is in cars where a small fraction of their real cost is actually recuperated in fees and taxes. Has he never taken a course in economics?

  8. People can make a good living off of being stupid, as long as they espouse conservative values. Look at Tim Eyeman.

    I really don’t mind the stupid, but the whole conservative mindset of “Oh My God, someone might be getting something that I’m not getting!” is just tedious. It’s the epitome of a childish bore, and I can’t abide childish bores.

  9. You know, it’s easy to jump on Herman here, but the nice thing about Twitter is that it contains instant, honest reaction rather than pablum that’s been focus-grouped to death.

    At worst, Herman is guilty of being victim to his preconceived notions and assuming that his ideological opponents are nitwits. Human nature.

  10. I think I actually saw fare checkers get on at ID recently. But they were heading south.

    I definitely see people pulled off the train for nonpayment pretty regularly. They don’t generally look homeless – they mostly look young and angry.

  11. There is almost never any fare-checking happening on the SLUT, I mean, err…”Seattle Streetcar”, which services a much less poor neighborhood than most of light rail.

  12. Martin @9,

    But Herman’s preconceptions go further than just assuming his ideological opponents are nitwits. He assumes that everybody is as craven as he is. Indeed, the reason he finds ST’s fare validation system to be so crazy is he just assumes everybody will try to evade it if there are no secure safeguards like gates, because that’s what he would do.

  13. Yeah, let’s also just point out that anecdote does not constitute data. He rode one time and proceeded to blather on about his own preconceived notions (something that’s not limited by ideology). It really didn’t require one train ride. Let’s just say he’s not a supersmart Bayesian logician.

  14. I think the key element that Herman was missing was the “random” element…and the confusion is over the claim that “everyone” is checked.

    It is a true statement that not everyone who rides the train will be checked.

    That doesn’t make Link Light Rail a liberal conspiracy to allow poor people to ride trains for free. That just means you got on and off the train in a car that wasn’t visited by a fare checker in that length of time.

    One could make an argument that it is worth the infrastructure and man hour costs to switch from random enforcement to absolute enforcement…but good luck with that.

  15. I’ve been riding LLR in the tunnel usually at least once a day ever since it has been operating and I’ve never had my fare checked. Not once. It is effectively ride-free in the tunnel.

  16. I used to sit across the hall from the guy several years back. As far as I could tell, his chief skills were being loud and saying lots of things that were not at all based in reality.

  17. I’ve only been checked once on the train in the dozen of times I’ve ridden it. My personal experience trumps facts! It’s a conspiracy!

  19. Well as long as we all realize that it isn’t racist to claim that people in “poor” neighborhoods will cheat and “rich” ones won’t. It’s shocking how sometimes when republicans speak in code and people get offended.

  20. Herman was simply accustomed to the right wing echo chamber, whereby all his tea party twitter buddies take the stupid conspiracy theory, and spread it all over the internets. Being called on his stereotyping is something he’s gonna have to get used to back in Seattle.

  21. Whenever you see right wingers proclaim their dedication to God, family & the USA…do a quick look-up on the Washington Courts page. There is usually always something in their past which has caused them to want to control you…

    1 Herman, Todd E
    Respondent King Co Superior Ct 92-3-04585-4 10-07-1992

    2 Herman, Todd Eugene
    Defendant King County District I04548275 10-25-2005

    3 Herman, Todd Eugene
    Defendant Seattle Municipal Ct 881270594 05-06-1988

    4 Herman, Todd Eugene
    Defendant Spokane Municipal H00035615 08-24-1994

    5 Herman, Todd Eugene
    Defendant Seattle Municipal Ct 21260 06-11-1990

    6 Herman, Todd Eugene
    Defendant Spokane Municipal G00087049 07-06-1993

    7 Herman, Todd Eugene
    Defendant Kcdc-west Div (sdc) 4628660 01-26-1990

    8 Herman, Todd Eugene
    Defendant Seattle Municipal Ct 882030491 07-21-1988

    9 Herman, Todd Eugene
    Defendant King County District IPS853262 03-27-2008

    10 Herman, Todd Eugene
    Defendant Bothell Municipal 8999 08-07-2001

    They could all be traffic infractions, for all I know. But he sure did spend a lot of time in front of judges in the last 15 years.

  22. He doesn’t understand that there are more trains on the alignment than just his. When the fare checkers get off, he assumes they’re not checking any other trains (or doing anything, for that matter), as his is the only train he sees.

    However, if he were to get off with them and wait a few minutes for the next train (which, Todd, is likely going in the opposite direction–“Lunk” Light Rail runs both north and southbound trains), he would see them check that one too. He just didn’t think of that. Because, as Goldy so aptly put it, he’s “really stupid.” Nuff said.

  23. @14: Also an excellent point. The main reason TriMet (and I assume Sound Transit) both use what is basically a glorified honor system for fares is because the cost of securing each station (and then maintaining the security) is usually MUCH higher than the cost of allowing a few “poor people” to cheat the system. This is especially true considering that Sound Transit makes back a lot lost fares when it collects huge fines from those stealing rides. (On TriMet, the fine is at least $115, or at least 50 “free rides.”)

    So the question then becomes: which is more important to Todd Herman and the like? Paying higher taxes and fares to make sure each freeloader is caught and beaten like the little bitch he thinks they are, or keeping the system as cost-efficient as possible?

    I opt for the latter because I’d rather have a cheaper system that provides an essential community service while minimizing the tax burden of doing so. Todd Herman, by contrast, would prefer a much more expensive system that’s as mean as possible to anyone who tries to cheat it. My earlier post is corrected: he’s not only really stupid, he also gets off on being an asshole.

  24. I thought we outlawed the GOP in this city?

    Are you sure it’s not a Libertarian pretending to be a Republican?

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