Yeah, it was booze. - NYT Opinion columnist David Brooks issues a mea culpa after spending $50 on a glass of whiskey while decrying the "terrible economy" - https://boingboing.net/2023/09/24/nyt-opinion-columnist-david-brooks-issues-a-mea-culpa-after-spending-50-on-a-glass-of-whiskey-while-decrying-the-terrible-economy.html
For anyone interested, here's the link directly to the video and timestamp of Brooks explaining his tweet and saying he thought it was a mistake for him to have tweeted it.
Sounds like he meant it as a joke but people took it on face value, so Poe's Law applies.
The original tweet sounds like an attempt at a joke to me, so if he says that's what it was, then I can believe it.
If it doesn't match a person's notion of what a joke is, well that gets complicated.
@volkris It became a joke because he got caught. There are myriad ways it could have been phrased otherwise if it were a joke.