At 9:31 a.m. on Thursday, Bay Area Rapid Transit got in on the meme of the moment.
“POV: STUCK in traffic, paying $6 a gallon, MOGGED by BART, cortisol SPIKING,” the agency posted to X, referencing the lingo of the Gen Z manosphere. Behind the text is a video of a BART train speeding past cars stuck in highway traffic, with the needle on a cortisol meter shooting into the red. The video then switches to the point of view of a BART rider. A relaxed passenger appears with text that reads, “LOW CORTISOL.”
The accompanying post says, “Get BARTmogged, gasmaxxers!!”
Three minutes later, the BART Alert account posted a message with a different tone: A delay was developing due to a track problem in the Transbay Tube. By 9:40, it had become a “major delay,” and one minute later, the agency suspended Red Line service entirely.
A cranky complaint to the meme had proved prophetic: “How about ensuring your trains work????” wrote (opens in new tab) @osca6r. “Every other day there’s always something wrong.”
A screenshot captures posts to BART’s main and alert accounts on X shortly after 9:30 a.m. Thursday. | Source: Courtesy BART
Indeed, the agency’s jestergooning had backfired, providing yet more ammunition for car-brained roadcels who argue that transit-maxxing is unreliable.
For readers who feel like they are having a stroke, allow us to explain a meme in excruciating detail.
In its original post, the agency employed internet slang invented on incel forums and catapulted into virality this year by Gen Z streamer Clavicular (opens in new tab). To “mog” is to outdo. Cortisol is a stress hormone and a fixation of looks-obsessed young men. And the -maxxing suffix doesn’t really mean anything (“gasmaxxing” could be translated as “using gasoline”).
One week after the conflict with Iran sent gas prices skyrocketing, public transit looks like an attractive alternative to driving. To frame the crisis in layman’s terms, the geopolitics-pilled supply-mogging dynamic in the Strait of Hormuz is causing oil tankers to petro-goon, and car-cels are paying the price. But no form of transportation is perfect.
Luckily for BART riders, the interruption was short-lived. By 10:17 a.m., delays on the San Francisco Line were down to 10 minutes.
The agency’s chad communications team said simply, “I’ll let the post speak for itself.”