To give you a real answer, yes, the Overton window has shifted. Anything at all that is perceived as limiting what a business can charge or negotiate is considered leftist now. Banning junk fees is a limit on what businesses can charge/negotiate.

"Political agenda" does indeed stick out like a sore thumb there. "Policy" is the word they should have used.

Agendas are all how you frame them and a lot of time statements at a high-level can be misconstrued.

The left and right actually agree on a lot at a high-level but do not agree on how to tackle the problem.

> Protecting consumers, including renters, appears be a large part of Mr. Mamdani’s early agenda as mayor. The actions of Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, appear so far to indicate a willingness to govern based on a leftist political agenda.

Using the term "leftist" to describe something Nixon would do is absolutely a sign the Overton Window has shifted.

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11...

> Has the overton window just shifted so much that not wanting to get screwed by greedy con artists is communist now?

I've seen this dude described as an "islamo-communist" more than once in different countries' medias (not fringe medias). I presume "islamist" because muslim, and "communist" because he's left of the center-right. You can't really talk with these people anyways, they're too far gone

At the gym, which bombards us with propaganda on the telescreens, I saw him called a "jihadist communist". It was either Fox News or Newsmax. It's like they looked for the scariest word salad that would trigger their boomer audience.

I also doubt either channel can define communism or jihad correctly.

They know it when they see it!

Americans called Joe Biden a communist. They called Barack Obama a communist. Even Hillary Clinton.

"Communist" in American political parlance is just a synonym for "Democrat" and has been since the days of the New Deal.

He’s not just left of center-right, he’s literally a “democratic socialist” which is far, far left. His tenant advocate literally has called for seizing of private property.

Most of the left is very centrist (Biden, Buttigieg, Newsom, Kamala, etc.)

Wait until you hear about what the GOP has allowed energy companies to do with eminent domain... and the expansion plans they have recently called for.

Please don’t classify me as some sort of GOP supporter just because I am clarifying the parent post as to Mamdani’s self-admitted political classification.

I didn't say you support the GOP. I am saying that the seizure of private property has long standing political support in the US from both sides of their political spectrum. It is hardly a "far-left" idea.

> he’s literally a “democratic socialist” which is far, far left

For an US perspective, yes. From an European perspective... him and Bernie are center-left, if not centrist. The Overton window is positioned much more towards the authoritarian right in the US than it is here - although the huge amounts of American and Russian funding towards far-right parties have been shifting the window here as well for about a decade.

This, America has shifted to the extreme right by a lot and Mamdani policies which are more centrist are seen as extreme here

Mamdani is an American politician. Why would comparing him to European standards make sense?

Because Mamdani is not "far far left" unless you live in the American echo chamber which treats anything not right-wing as a leftist threat [1]. On a global stage, where actual political systems exist beyond America's basic, captured two-party system, the words "left" and "right" have established political meaning.

[1] https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/how-nspm-7-seeks...

Because in the US feeding kids for free in schools is seen as communism, but that's not what communism is. You can't say this dude is a communist or an islamist because words have a meaning and these meanings transcend American borders

It really isn't rocket science lol

because Americans are incredibly stupid when it comes to understanding class politics so they just throw words like marxist and communist around without knowing what they mean (source: I am American)

These damn leftists want people to be able live and prosper, I can't take it.

I have not seen any indication that Mamdani has advocated for violence to achieve his goal, so calling him a communist seems unfair, but I think he would also agree it is unfair to simply say he is "left of the center-right".

Mamdani seems very proud to be a socialist and you get a taste of it where he says "...the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment" and "..we have to continue to elect more socialists and we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism", etc. He is very clear about his beliefs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K7HDuoJ0MQ

> Has the overton window just shifted so much that not wanting to get screwed by greedy con artists is communist now?

In the context of US politics, progressive politics have been often labelled "communist" for around 100 years.

> According to this same article, the efforts seem to be a continuation of existing work that was happening before he got elected

Mamdani is not the first progressive politician in NYC

You mean like the US now with Venezuelan oil?

Roll time back and think about that country since the progressives took power.

Killed and captured the oil industry resulting in the decline of GDP and standards of living.

Great example to prove my point

And what exactly is your point? You stated one side of the history but not the other. One can only conclude that you're implying "not communist" is good, when in fact that's just nonsense.

That's deeply reductive and really not what HackerNews is supposed to be about

HackerNews isn't supposed to be a communist propaganda forum.

But the progressives seem to have to jam their socialist religion into everything!

Very reductive again

Deeply ironic given the news out of Venezuela…

Mamdani is actually a democratic socialist, it's just that this distinction doesn't exist in US english.

The ideology of Democratic Socialism has always been focused on helping low income and working poor people live better lives, and that manifests in action to put more money in their pocket. I suppose you more often hear about more indirect ways to do this (eg. trying to lower rent, create more subsidized low cost housing) but lowering fees puts more money in people's pocket and that is directly in the wheel house of Democratic Socialism.

So if this seems like Mamdani is doing something weird here, I think it's more that the twisted media framing of the left has pushed people to have a vision of it that is dissonant from its real ideology and goals.

It is leftist compared to the baseline of American politics, which is center-right compared to the opinions of the American people.