#GreenShirtGuy Is Fine With Being Called 'Zaddy' — As Long As It Helps Tucson Become A Sanctuary City

Aside from the universe itself, there really is nothing quite expansive because The world wide web. There, you could find a life-long partner, purchase groceries without leaving your apartment, and serve as launchpads for major activist movements, to more mundane things like being named Alex and working at Target to tweeting like a dog.


That the criteria for achieving Internet fame right now include civic engagement should surprise no one paying attention to our current political climate. On Wednesday, July 7, #GreenShirtGuy began trending on Twitter, thanks to a video from a Tucson City Council meeting in which two people sang a folk song, someone played a banjo, and activist Zaira Emiliana Livier gave an impassioned speech about the significance of sanctuary cities throughout tumultuous times in the nation. However once two people clad in Trump gear started shouting about immigrants “staying home,” a male in a now-famous green polo could not control his laughter. He went viral, and I suddenly realized where I knew him from: Five years prior, we had matched on Tinder.


It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. Again, The world wide web is an excellent equalizer in several ways, and there really is no way to definitively guess who is destined to be the next viral star. That indicates each person from your mom to your third-grade teacher’s second cousin’s dog has a nearly equal chance at their 15 minutes; it is only fair those odds factor in people from dating apps. That was once the dread set in: I, who have made most of my career being a Writer Online, was going to DM some 28-year-old dude I met on a dating app half a decade ago for an interview.


So, being the professional I am, I DMed four very calm and professional messages to Alex Kack, an organizer with The Peoples' Defense Initiative — ”GREEN” “SHIRT” “GUY” “?????????” — And asked him for an interview.


Christianna Silva, MTV News: Do you remember how we met?


Alex Kack: sort of loosely. We met on Tinder.


MTV News: Yeah, we did. It feels like epitome of The world wide web, because we met on Tinder and vaguely kept in contact within the past four years because we're both in political circles. And right now you are a meme on Twitter. So, how else has The world wide web shaped you or shaped political activism for you?


Kack: I was never involved with organizing Whenever I determined to protest and I must've been like 16, 15, at the time. It was in response to the Westboro Baptist church in Phoenix, Arizona. Some of the people I knew determined we would post a bunch of stuff on MySpace and just attempt to get it out there. We thought maybe 20 people would show up. Also it just went off like a bomb within several days. Then we had a giant parking lot full of human bodies carrying picket signs. I think that was my first run-in with how The world wide web was changing and shaping how we communicate and why we organize well. It's been interesting to watch how it evolves. People tried, I think sort of largely failed, in the ’90s to make use of it as an efficient organizing tool.


the full thing about being a millennial is that we were place on Earth right before the technology was really readily accessible and prevalent, and got to watch it develop and sort of pioneer it and test those waters ourselves… It quite literally changed the world, changed the geopolitical landscape.


MTV News: The world wide web can also simplify things. People talk about you because the #greenshirtguy. Do you suggest political memes run the risk of devaluing the sentiment of the movement, which for you, now, is making a sanctuary city in Tucson?


Kack: Not at all. It's political cartooning for this century. I visualize no difference between a 21-year-old with a Facebook page making statements and then some guy cartooning for the New Yorker half-a-century ago.


MTV News: Can you tell me about the push to prepare Tucson a sanctuary city?


Kack: The way the process works out here, they have a citizen-led initiative. It's actually the initial citizen-led initiative for sanctuary city status in the country's history, which is sort of a fun, unique thing. And I think also really a statement about the values of this city. However basically any regular guy here in Tucson, any common categorize of folks can get with each other, have an idea, get an initiative law drafted, and then collect the needed signatures to put it up for a public vote.


What was happening at city council meeting is that we had received well over the variety of signatures that we required to get this on the ballot, and so they just have to go via formality of formally placing it on the ballot. There was no discussion or possibility for there to be a nay vote or anything in that sense. It was really just this process going through this formality. And there were speeches made, and my manager [Zaira Emiliana Livier] gave a magnificent speech. It was very serious. Was somber and yes it was furious. The mood was not that light before the yelling began, however once [the pro-Trump protestors] did, I think each person in that room reacted differently. And truth be told, I don't think I was the only person laughing. I think I just happened to be sitting in the front row.


MTV News: What made you laugh at that protester? I know that you’re a stand-up comic. Are you still, and do you know that played into your reaction?


Kack: Yeah, maybe that couple years of writing jokes taught me to sort of look at hateful and aggravating things in a slightly different light than maybe what other people's reactions to it were. It was just crazy behavior in a public setting by members of a hate sort. What are you really going to do and that situation however laugh? It seemed clear that it wasn't escalating into violence, at least at that moment. It was just this strange sort of surreal thing happening far less than a foot from me.


MTV News: People on The world wide web noticed the antics of that distinct city council meeting to be absurd, yet that was such a Tucson thing. 


Kack: This isn't the weirdest city council meeting I have been to here. Tucson's a quirky place. That's why I think those of us, people who pick to live here, we don't fit in maybe necessarily anywhere else. So we come stay in the desert. Attempting to hope that a snake or the heat doesn't kill us.


MTV News: Why is it crucial for Tucson specifically, this quirky, fun place to be a sanctuary city?


Kack: Well, several points there. Tucson is a quirky, fun place, nevertheless it's also an enormous metropolitan area. We're quirky and fun, and I think those are values that we hold dear. Nevertheless we're also incredibly compassionate. It's a statement of our values. It's key that we take a stand and enshrine into law values that most of the people who live here already hold indoor themselves: Values that people deserve to feel safe here, without consideration of where they're from, or how they came to live here. That they be able to seek things like medical assistance or to go to a home of worship and pray and worship and the way that they pick to without fear of detention or deportation. They should have the ability to interact with civic staff and first responders without fear once they're in a time of crisis. It makes our community safer, not just for undocumented folks living here, although for each person. And I think it's certainly something that Tucson should do, I think this is something that everywhere should do.


MTV News: and you went into the city council with a very serious thing to talk about it, and then it's become this...


Kack: Circus.


MTV News: Circus, yeah. I saw "green shirt guy" was trending and I was like, “I went on a Tinder date with someone who is currently trending on the Internet.” Once did you know notice that you were going viral?


Kack: I’ll be happy to tell you, however how did you feel whenever you saw that?


MTV News: It took a minute because you didn't used to have a mustache. 


Kack: Yeah, I moved back to Arizona and I had to really lean into it. Grow a mustache, purchase turquoise jewelry.


MTV News: Although it must've been way weirder for you to notice that you were going viral on Twitter than for me to realize I made a good career decision five years ago.


Kack: It’s uniquely abnormal. The night of the meeting, we grabbed food, and somebody mentioned, "Hey, is this you in the corner?" I think there was like 30 comments on it at the time. The next morning I woke up also it was a GIF. I had a bunch of missed calls and text messages. I had thousands of Twitter followers.

MTV News: some prominent people have discussed about you. Chrissy Teigen tweeted about you. What was one of the weirdest things that's come out of this?


Kack: Seeing myself on Colbert was crazy. I have been watching Colbert since he was on The Day-to-day Show and Strangers With Candy and things like that. That's getting close to well over 15 years right now that I have been a fan of this guy and then he's making jokes about the fact that I have a goofy laugh. I mean, that is as good as it gets.


MTV News: For me, it felt like epitome of The world wide web, being reminded of people you meet on dating apps through a trending topic on Twitter. Do you still have a Tinder? And in case you do, are any of your photographs of you in a green shirt?


Kack: I fairly recently wound up back in Tinder pool, inside of the last few months. None of these are of me in a green shirt, although I did get a Hinge message from somebody saying, "Are you ‘green shirt guy?’"


MTV News: So this may land you with a date.


Kack: Yeah, I have been getting marriage proposals on Twitter and have been especially sexually objectified. Which, for a guy with low self-esteem, has been super cool, actually.


MTV News: The world wide web is a wild place.


Kack: Yeah. I got called a "zaddy," which I had to ask someone what it meant.


MTV News: And right now, you're bonafide Twitter well known. You have 52,000 followers. Do you suggest what you're going to do with this platform now?


Kack: Honestly, the only thing I have is to create ensure that we continue to address how key sanctuary city status in Tucson is. And if this supports the it, it was all worth it.