Weed-Loving Hipster Joe Lhota Is Writing For BuzzFeed Now
In case you haven’t made up your mind about the mayoral election yet, and are still hoping to within the next 24 hours or so: Joe Lhota has finally taken to BuzzFeed in hopes of reversing de Blasio’s roughly 40-point lead in the polls. Earlier this morning, “Joe Lhota, BuzzFeed User” put up a community post simply entitled, “15 Reasons to Vote for Joe Lhota For Mayor of New York City.” BuzzFeed, per their policy for “community posts,” clarifies right next to his byline that the post “has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed’s editorial staff. BuzzFeed Community is a place where anyone can post awesome lists and creations.”
Items on Lhota’s “awesome list” include the argument that he was the “original Brooklyn hipster” (evidence: a picture of him as a youth wearing glasses), the fact that he has a beard (#votebeard), and his continued support of marijuana decriminalization. He also vaguely addresses his controversial attitude about the subway kittens (in a nutshell: to let them die), writing that he’s an animal lover, “even cats” (ed note: then why is he only pictured here with dogs?).
So, are you swayed? Impressed by his devil-may-care new media savvy? Or just vicariously a little embarrassed that he’s still publicly touting himself as a fan of “Drunk Hulk.”
[Update]: Via the Village Voice, today’s post isn’t actually Lhota’s first time at the BuzzFeed rodeo: over the weekend, he also posted a questionably factual list entitled “22 Reasons Bill de Blasio is Outside the NY Mainstream.” Truth be told, we have been getting a little sick of listicles about the 90s, but this isn’t really the change of pace anybody was hoping for.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.