The New York City subway system can be seen as a constant test of human decency, in which almost every action is simultaneously an ethical choice that helps determine whether you’re a horrible person. These actions range from the truly evil (leaning on the subway poles) to the merely annoying (wearing a backpack during rush hour, audibly cursing and pacing the platform when your train is late).
The New York Times today focuses on a sin that is nearly universal among commuters: the exasperation that meets the announcement that a subway has been delayed because of a sick passenger. For if you’re not one to add your voice to the swell of barely suppressed groans that fills the carriage, you’re surely shaking your fist on the inside.
But hey, at least you didn’t complain about it on Twitter:
After a delay this month on an N train Susie Moy was riding, she took to Twitter to complain, as many riders have—often in angry and colorful language. “Enough with the sick passenger excuse,” she wrote to the authority’s account. “No one buys it!”
While it’s easy to see the subway as some kind of cosmic conspiracy against commuters, it is another thing entirely to claim that the sick passengers aren’t even real.