On debate night, some girded themselves with yoga, feel-good podcasts and couch-lock strains. Others fired up Snapchat and let laughter distract them from the inanity. Then there were those of us who decided to tune out altogether.
In the latter camp is D.C. bartender Tripp Diaz. She was taking her Monday night off work to catch up on American Horror Story when she started getting texts from strangers: “I’m Jen from Florida and I support Hillary.” “This is for C-Span and I support Trump cuz I don’t give a fuck about [N-word].” Thousands of texts from people telling her, for no apparent reason, who gets their vote and why.
Turns out, while she was vegging on the couch, C-SPAN was posting her phone number on live television and encouraging its viewers to send their opinions about the debate on Monday. (Tripp says she doesn’t know how this happened.) According to DCist, she had 7,900 texts before she went to bed, and another 4,500 when she woke up on Tuesday, along with over 400 calls. She’ll probably just change her number eventually.
“The Clinton ones were rather reasonable. Their text messages were rather boring like ‘I’m Jen from Florida and I support Hillary,'” Diaz told DCist. “They’re just reasonable humans.” A registered Democrat in Virginia, Diaz says, “I think that we have to choose between two at the bottom of the barrel right now, but I’m obviously voting for Hillary.”
As if having stranger-assholes hassling her with their opinions and needs at her day job isn’t enough.
And if you’re wondering if all those texts blew up her phone bill, as well, here’s some small good news.
Verizon told her she’s unlikely to face any additional charges since she has unlimited texts and didn’t answer the calls.
“I’m probably just going to change my number,” Diaz told DCist, because of “the fools who sit and respond to C-Span.”
In related news: people still apparently watch C-Span.
[h/t DCist]
