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