Why I'm Distancing Myself From Chronically Online People: Woman Goes on Racial Tirade Over Mexican Flag

As a news and political junkie, some stories stick with me more than others.

Particularly, I remember a story from way back in 2006 during the student protests at Montebello High School in California, which were held in response to proposed federal immigration legislation under the George W. Bush administration.

During the school walkout, students raised a Mexican flag above an upside-down American flag on the school’s flagpole — an image that quickly sparked national outrage.

All these years later, the image is still burned into my memory.

I was a teenager at the time. Young, but becoming politically aware, although most of my opinions were regurgitated from what my dad told me.

I was angry at the image and thought it was a racist act — though at the time, I naively called it “reverse racism,” not yet understanding that racism is racism, no matter how you slice it.

I'm older and wiser now and have a more nuanced view on these kinds of things.

Political Lessons From President George W. Bush (Part IV)

This past Sunday, a different kind of story hit close to home — literally — in my hometown of Palmdale, California. And as someone who’s spent far too much time being chronically online, it struck a nerve.

Food trucks have always been a staple out here, but their popularity really took off after COVID. Mexican food has long been a cornerstone of Southern California cuisine — and I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a snob about Mexican food outside of a border state.

Well, over the weekend, a video took off on social media featuring a woman harassing a Mexican food truck for displaying a Mexican flag outside their location.

(Warning: The video contains NSFW language as the woman belts out a stream of expletives.)

Palmdale, CA - A local food truck vendor, Toxxicos Food Truck, was reportedly targeted by an individual who expressed hostility towards the business for flying a Mexican flag.

According to video from the victim, the individual allegedly approached the vendor and made derogatory… pic.twitter.com/zQzASbYRv1
— 661 Lasd And Lacofd calls. (@661LASDCalls) May 26, 2025

"[It's] not f*****g Mexico, M***********s!" the woman yells from her car as she drives by Toxxicos Go Go Go food truck in Palmdale. Toxxicos notably has a Mexican flag banner outside the food truck as she drives by.

She goes on to make an absolutely wild claim that "It's illegal to have a Mexican flag and not an American one."

"I'm calling ICE. Watch, b*****s," she says, doubling down on her tirade. "This is f*****g America!"

After a jump cut, the woman is seen driving by once again in the opposite direction, appearing to further threaten the food truck vendor.

In my naive 13-year-old mind, I probably would have been on the woman's side and thought the vendor was in fact making some kind of transgression against the United States for daring to fly a Mexican flag.

See, back in 2006, I was going through this angry teenage phase, and after seeing the immigration protests, I became aware that I was getting angry with anything that had to do with Mexico or Hispanic culture.

I'm kinda impressed that I had the sense of self-awareness at that age to realize I was angrily associating politics I didn't like with an entire ethnicity.

I love comedy. I don’t get offended on other people’s behalf, and it takes a lot for me to feel offended myself. That mindset comes from viewing humor as something rooted in a genuine desire to make people laugh — or to highlight an inconvenient, ironic truth. But if a joke is made in bad faith, just to provoke or upset people, then it’s usually not funny — it’s just mean-spirited.

Unfortunately, it seems as though a lot of chronically online people are going down a similar path I found myself on in the wake of the Karmelo Anthony case.

Lately on X, I’m not seeing jokes — or even edgy takes I might disagree with but still respect. What I’m seeing is a wave of mean-spirited posts targeting Black Americans, and I can't help but see this woman as a real-life representation of someone who's chronically online and lets anger control her life.

I think it's fair to suppose that this woman probably feels patriotic and has probably been angry with lax immigration policies enacted under the Biden administration. I totally agree with that and can sympathize with her.

But her facts are completely wrong. Forget about the fact that it's a Mexican restaurant; private businesses quite literally are allowed to fly a foreign nation's flag at their establishment. A private business isn't even required to fly an American flag. You don't have to like either of those things, but it's federally protected by the First Amendment.

Worse, it's been reported that the man who owns the food truck, Oscar Lopez, is a United States citizen. I have to assume the woman isn't aware of any of this, otherwise she wouldn't have lost her cool in the first place. Unfortunately, she let her anger get the best of her, and now she looks like the bad guy.

This story feels like the exact kind of outburst being cultivated by the culture of chronically online people who have been pushed to the fringes and have the most extreme stances on anything.

I'm angry about the damage done by open border policies, and I'm also angry about Austin Metcalf's death. I'm not mad at an entire ethnic group over these things, though. I'm mad at the politics and policies that encourage and allow these things to happen.

I’ve been chronically online for as long as I can remember, but I’m at least self-aware enough to notice when I’m spiraling. Anger’s easy — but if we let it cloud our judgment, it distracts us from the real issues we're upset about.

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